Winter skills weekend.

After a slightly more chilled out week, assessing some of the students from West Highland college on their leadership skills. Today I was working for Hebridean Pursuits with a big group from Manchester University Mountaineering club and todays plan was to go and see what skills we could get covered due to all of the new that we have. After a bit of a wade from the gondola station just as we hit the bottom of the Nid we found some great areas of scoured old snow for us to work with. More of the same tomorrow but hopefully, more of a journey.

Wet outside!

I was out with another couple of guys from Heriot-Watt today and with a far from promising forecast we opted to spend the day at the Ice factor and avoid a day like this. We managed to cover lots and fill in some of the gaps of knowledge Owen and Mike had and talked about how things might be different in winter. We got a good couple of hours in the ice wall looking at movement and then finished the afternoon off (and their forearms) with some dry tooling.

The weather is set to get cold again tomorrow and things are looking good for another cold spell, today was just a blip and we need some of them for good old scottish winter conditions. 

A busy day on Ben Nevis.

Witold, Iain and I headed up the Ben this morning with the plan to climb some of the lower level ice, it appeared that this was everyone elses plan too. The boys wanted to look at placing winter gear, abolokov's and of course to climb some ice, so we spent some time bouldering around, looking at movement skills, placing and removing ice screws and they had a go at building their own threads. Once the routes had quieted down a little we headed up to Waterfall gully to put it all into practice.

All of the low level ice routes got multiple assents today along with routes on the Douglas boulder and there were quite a few teams on the CIC cascades with a couple of teams saying they were cruddy. We're due a thaw again tomorrow with some heavy rain but I think the ice will hold up well.

A fun morning on the Curtain.

With today the last blue sky day before the weather changes Hannah and I decided to get a classic done that neither of us had been on. So, we made an early start to try and beat the crowds, which thankfully worked, meaning no queues, nothing falling down on us and clean ice. The Curtain gave three great pitches and we were back at the bags for 12pm and just as the weather was changing. It's no secret that there is plenty of ice on the Ben on the moment and I'm sure most of it will survive the next couple of short, warm spells.

Stunning morning light.

Hannah coming up the first pitch.

Approaching the belay after the crux pitch.

The Ben is looking fantastic at the moment.

A days climbing at last!

After a busy first family christmas and then heading straight back into a busy period of work, I've not really had a chance to get out and enjoy the winter for myself yet. Today I headed out with Ken and Hannah for a quick hit on Aonach Beag's North face. We started up one route in the clag only to discover it was the wrong one, so we topped out and headed back round for Stand and deliver. There is just one pitch of grade 5 climbing on this but it is a great pitch and Ken swiftly dispatched it and we were back down for coffee and cake at Nevis range at a reasonable time. I was either climbing or holding ropes today and Han was the 'official' photographer so see the Apple mountaineering blog for more photos.

Good climbing with good friends.

Sunshine and snow!

I'm out with Angus and Garry this weekend who want to build on their leading. With snow down to sea level again overnight we decided to stay low to avoid the wade through all the snow. We headed for the Ribs on Meall an t-shuide above Fort William, the main rib is a grade 2 summer scramble and I had heard it was an alright grade II in winter. The guys did a great job of leading themselves up in 5 pitches with a little coaching from me and I took over for the final 100m to take us to the top. The route was great for what we needed and we got to climb in the sun all day. I was working for Abacus Mountain Guides.

Some sunshine at last.

Yesterday was a bit of a wash out and the college was closed to all staff and students but today we managed to make up for it. We had a great day in Glencoe managing to cover a lot of the things we had left to do. There is a lot of snow on the hills with deep drifts from low levels and snow was still being shifted about today. The wind had eased overnight and there was even some periods of blue skies today but every now and then the weather decided to kick up and just give us a quick reminder of how it could be.