The Andrew Sims, official one and only website about me....
I had less winter climbing opportunities in 2003/4,
but I suppose I did go to Africa.... One awesome
weekend however stands out, we managed to
climb up (and down) 3 routes in the same time it
took most people to do a single route on the Ben
on Saturday plus 2 more routes at Annoach Mor
on Sunday!
So... about 20 stars and 10 routes if you include
descents….
First route was Green Gully IV,3. With perfect
climbing conditions we only placed gear for belays.
Moving so fast however can be tiring, eh Andy?
So... we were at the top of Britain by about 10.30,
not bad considering we didn't leave the car park
until 7.30, the route taking less than an hour.
After romping down No. 2 gully (II) we decided to
have a go at Comb gully Buttress, and ended up
taking the exciting Icicle variation (V, 5). A steeper,
more sustained route, but fairly straight-forward under the almost perfect winter conditions.
We descended No. 2 gully for the second time, but
a bloke we had passed coming up the gully the first
time we descended it wasn't particularly impressed
with us.
To complete the 'set' we finished our incredible day
with an ascent of Comb Gully (IV,4) and then
descended No. 3 gully (I)
Sunday was almost as good, at Annoach Mor we were quite tired and didn't get onto the Gondola until
almost 9 o’clock, but we caught up with most of the crowds on the walk-in. We politely asked some
chaps if we could use their abseil rope down easy gully (as there was a massive queue to down-climb).
Afterwards, we coiled the rope for them and then ran down pass them and overtook some others to be
the first party on to Left Twin (III) and then Tunnel Vision (III), before being back at the car park for 2pm
for the long drive home.
