Cold and showery with snow on the tops!

That's the weekend weather forecast for you - yes it's summer!

After all the lovelly hot, dry and sunny weather Scotland has been having throughout May and early June it looks like winter will again briefly return to the Cairngorm tops.

It's been very snowy in the Alps at the moment too putting summits such as Mont Blanc out of bounds due to the deep snow and avalanche risk. Cat who was out in the Alps to climb Mont Blanc for charity with Kenton Cool climbed another 4000 metre peak, Grande Paradiso instead. I filmed Cat and Fi on Tower Ridge recently training for her charity event. It was her first ever rock climb and her first ascent of Ben Nevis - so well done. More details can be found on Fi's blog.

In east Scotland the midges were out this week in mass but fortunately we were working indoors at the Glenmore Lodge climbing wall. Apparently it got so bad that Tracey and Ian had to bin an outdoor archery session despite poor Richard being tied to the abseil tower as midge bate for Glenmore!!!

Next Tuesday we're off to the Alps and return mid September - that is if we can find and afford diesel for our campervan and the Rosyth ferry is still running!

We have a few folk climbing Mont Blanc with us and BMG guide Jonathan Preston so we'll try and keep you posted on how they get on and conditions in the Alps.

Sun glorious sun

Another fantastic warm blue sky day in the east until some late afternoon cloud appeared over Cairngorm. It was dry yesterday too despite heavy rain being forecast. Much of the rock is dry in the mountains though there are still some large snow patches in places.

An absolutely blistering day in the NW

Rain and a lot colder weather was forecast to hit the Highlands sometime on Sunday and it was moving in from the south east, so we headed north and to the wild west climbing crags. See http://www.wildwesttopos.com/

We made the right choice and had a fantastic hot rock day at Stone Valley crag. The climbing is south facing on lovely clean rough gneiss with reliable trad protection.

We had sun, blue skies and as it's been dry for weeks with a light breeze there were no midges. It felt more like being in Spain but with better unspoilt views and a lot cleaner and fresher air...

Fi and I enjoyed two of the cleanest and most perfect trad rock climbs we've done for along time.

They were Open Secret (HS; 4b) and a rather bold feeling Bald Eagle (HVS; 5a). There are holds on the upper blank slab although they aren't apparent until you climb up to them with minimal spaced protection...!

We also climbed the aptly named Cheese Grater a fine rough slab (VS; 4c), Touch and Go (VS; 4c or HVS; 5a?) depending on the guide and lastly Inside Information (HVS; 5a; 5a).

The last climb has a strenuous start, scrappy middle on the first pitch but a good second pitch up the black water streaked groove - as long as the black streak is dry!