The end of my winter.

Well that's my winter season finished with, no more winter work booked in but with the amount of snow left on the hills, I have a feeling I'll still have to use some winter kit out for a while. I was out with Patrick on Saturday and Sunday, he wanted his first taste of Scottish winter so we headed up into Coire nan Lochan on Saturday to cover the basics, which he picked up very quickly. We headed up to the summit via the west ridge and descended down Broad gully, which has more snow in it now than I have ever seen and will be there for a long time yet.

Ledge route on Sunday.

Sunday was a brighter day and Patrick wanted to up the level a little so we for Ledge route along with a few other parties. The route is still nearly all snow covered but the snow was thawing and has been over the last two days. Yesterday I was out with Bart for The Highland Mountain company and we headed for the Aonach Eagach which was a great day out with sunshine and blue skies but there is very little snow left on the crest and we took crampons off after the first descent. Not really a winter day but still a nice day to finish the winter, given that it has been a winter with some hard conditions. Bring on the summer with dry rock and dry trails for riding.

The Bidean Massif still with a lot of snow cover above 700m.

Spring in the Outdoor Capital.

The last two days in the Outdoor Capital have been stunning. Spring really is the best time of year, today you could of been winter climbing on the Ben, skiing at Nevis Range, out on your mountain bike or like us, rock climbing in the sun, Enough said! 

A great couple of days despite the forecasts.

Rich Parker has joined me for the last two days to work with Scott, Kelly, Will and Jo. Yesterday with a high avalanche forecast and lighter winds we headed for Tower ridge which was at the top of the boys list for things they would like to do. We had no rain, in fact the cloud lifted above the summit to give us a great view of what was left after the thaw. Quite a bit of fresh snow fell during the afternoon and we had to make fresh tracks up the ridge which slowed us down a bit but a great day none the less.

Today we headed for North Buttress on the Bauchaille to avoid the gusty winds, the route looked quite black from beneath as we approached but there is still some good snow holding on but it might not last another thaw.

Ben Nevis on Thursday.

A lot of routes still have large cornices above them.

The first snow arete on Tower ridge.

Jo and Will enjoying the dry weather.

Will hanging around on North Buttress.

Scott and Kelly getting stuck in.

Rich and Will getting a taste of the heavy showers passing through today.

Will on the crux chimney.

On the sharp end.

Dave and I have done a few routes together now in summer and winter and today was his turn to do some of the leading. We headed for a surprisingly quiet Dorsal arete and swung leads up the route with me finishing of on the crux. The route is very banked out with some good simple belays but not a lot of gear between them but the climbing easy for the grade at the moment. Plenty of other parties out in the coire today, too many to list here but a good spread of routes through the grades. A couple of days off for me now, so lets see what the weather brings. 

Curved ridge and finally some sunshine.

I'm out with returning client Dave this weekend and today we planned to make the best of the weather. We walked in through some cloud and a bit of drizzle first thing this morning but it didn't take long for it to burn off and the sun to break through. The route was plastered with snow but enough for it to be helpful and we made good time using the steps from previous climbers, the route is easy for the grade at the moment with all of the tricky steps banked out but it was a good route as always. Lets see what tomorrow brings.

A snowy Curved ridge and Rannoch wall.

Mountaineering with the UHI

After a couple of days in the Ice Factor to escape the weather I was back out on the hill yesterday with Brodie and Cameron for some winter mountaineering. Yesterday we headed up to the Ben and spent some time looking at some snow belays and then headed up the west gully of the Douglas boulder and down a busy east gully. Today Andy and I headed out with our teams to climb the Dragon's tooth above Glenahullish, this was a great opportunity for the boys to put some skills into practise and for some further coaching. It wasn't as bright today as they had forecast and we had some quite heavy snow showers which have put down a fair amount of snow.

I forgot my camera today so my shots are just from yesterday, Andy will have some shots from today.

Back up to a damp Ben Nevis.

I'm working for West Coast Mountain Guides this weekend with Martin and Bart, with a pretty poor forecast for the whole weekend we decided to make the best of it this morning. We headed up to the Douglas boulder to climb the South west ridge along with a couple of other teams. The freezing level was above the height of Douglas boulder and we had plenty of showers of wet snow throughout the day with some strong gusts but nothing too bad.

Other teams were on the Curtain again and left chimney on the boulder, more signs of avalanche activity today and we witnessed one release at 700m on a northeasterly aspect from the slopes coming down from just above the halfway lochain path.

Spindrift being blown back up Vanishing gully.

Bart cruising up the crux pitch.