A brief return to winter.

I was out on the Bauchaille yesterday with Hannah and Davie just working through a few things ready for next month. The snow line had gone up quite a way since I was there on Saturday. There is now only snow at the back of Coire na Tuilach for the last 80-100m before you reach the Bealach. There was water running every where and unsurprisingly we were all saturated by about 2pm so ran away for coffee and cake in Glen Coe village.

The temps have dropped today and there is fresh snow lying above 900m but it is forecast to warm up again tomorrow evening for a few days. People will be out today and I'm sure it won't be long before we get an idea of what is left to do on the Ben. In Stob Coire nan Lochan the snow is now patchy up to the very foot of broad gully and there was no snow on any of the Buttress'. Over in the Cairngorms things aren't looking too good either. Have a look at Al's and Max's blogs for photos. I'm sure winter is not over yet and we will see some more snow and ice building again but it does look a bit depressing at the moment.

Ben Nevis Winter Skills Weekend.

Over the weekend I was running a course with Rich for Maximum Adventure. On Saturday we made our way into Coire na Tuilach on the Bauchaille hoping to find some shelter from the strong winds and it is a quick walk up to the snow line. We survived the day looking at skills and went on a bit of a tour of the coire.

Yesterday was a completely different day with blue Sky's and very little wind which was great for our day on the Ben, although it did cloud over later in the day. We walked up a pretty busy tourist path passing a lot of people who were not prepared for the rock hard neve and ice on the plateau. We had a bit of a tour round having a look over to the North face, more so I could see what was getting done but the group were impressed with the climbers too.

Looking down No.3 Gully.

A busy Summit.

Lots of people out and we saw teams on Ledge route, Gargoyle wall, Babylon (I think), the Cascades, Glover's chimney, Smith's route and Indicator wall. We saw the chopper about too but didn't hear the unfortunate news of the accident on Zero gully until we got home.

Tour de Ben Nevis.

Today was the last day of the Abacus Mountain Guides course and it as an opportunity for the guys to put their new skills into practise. Unfortunately Shelly had to drop out because of a bad knee. We had planned on Ledge route hoping to be done before the worst of the weather came in but on the walk in the wind seemed to have already picked up so we changed our plan and headed for Moonlight gully. The guys lead themselves up the first two pitches then we descended the broken ground to the side and traversed round to Douglas Boulder where we did more of the same up West Gully and then Abseiled down East gully. A week of mixed weather but a nice group of people and a fun course to run.

Spring in the Coe!

Today on the Abacus Mountain Guides course was all about the rock. With rain forecast at all levels and strong winds we stayed low and headed to the Ziz Zags. This route is great if you want a shorter day or want to stay low and away from the worst of the weather. This does mean however that it seems like I'm always on this route in pretty nasty weather which could start to make me feel a little jaded about the route but thankfully after a slightly damp start the rain stopped and the sun came out and we spent most of the afternoon scrambling on dry rock with stunning views. Reminded me how nice a way up it is through some impressive rock scenery.

We spent the day looking at introducing the guys to some basic rock climbing, looking at pitching, moving together and abseiling. Final day tomorrow and a chance for the guys to put everything they've learnt this week into practise. 

Soggy snow anchors

Today on the Abacus Mountain Guides Winter Mountaineering course we headed up in to Coire na Tulaich on the Bauchaille to look at snow anchors. It doesn't take long before you hit the snow so the short approach meant we made the most of the day. Lots of digging done today and although the top few inches of snow are wet and soft there were some icy layers lower down making digging hard work at times today. The team did well and we made lots of short pitches looking at all of the different anchors we have in our tool box and when to use them. 

Creag Meagaidh.

Day 2 of the Abacus Mountain Guides Winter Mountaineering Course and we headed into Creag Meagaidh. On the walk-in we concentrated on Navigation so the guys could get used to some contour interpretation and breaking things down into smaller legs ready for us heading onto the tops. Unfortunately due to a couple of niggles we had to turn round but spent the rest of the day looking at emergency shelters. 

The ice seems to be holding on but there are a few holes appearing in some of the routes. We didn't hit firm snow until we were in the Inner corrie where a couple of routes were getting done. I would imagine the ice at the bottom of the routes on the Post face is going to be close to useless at the moment and the ice higher up has seen some lower temps but the rock still looked damp today.

Skills round the Nid

I'm running a Winter Mountaineering course this week for Abacus Mountain Guides and today was day one. We took the Gondola up Nevis range and walked round to the Nid and here the group had there first chance to use some of their shiny kit. We spent the day looking at all of the skills that are available to us to move around on varying terrain and went on a bit of a journey taking in some steeper ground. We finished the day off by looking at Ice Axe arrest.