Kevin Rutherford MIC

Hill and climbing conditions for the Scottish Highlands.

www.ecossemountains.co.uk

Winter Courses - Winter Skills, Winter Mountaineering, Winter Climbing & Norway Ice based in Rjukan

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Winter Climbing 18-22 Jan 2016

A few shots from last weeks Intro Climbing course at Glenmore Lodge. 3 great wintery days with no wind and then the complete opposite with 2 mild and wild, that's winter! Hopefully conditions will re start today.










Sunday 17 January 2016

Winter so far....

It was slow to arrive but as soon as the South Easterly winds kicked in it arrived full blast, the Cairngorms are now in full winter nick. Photos below from last weeks Winter Mountaineering course at Glenmore Lodge. Loving my Petzl Summit Evo from @GlenmoreLodge & @LyonEquipment, thank you.







Saturday 7 November 2015

Winter is on its way....

A few shots from a busy summer, winter will arrive at some point soon!


















Tuesday 14 April 2015

Ben Nevis

Winter work just finished on Sunday with a day on Ben Nevis with Colin. After a lot of chat in the North Face car park and watching big squally showers passing by we finally decided to wander up to the CIC hut. There had been a lot fresh snow overnight and it felt windier than the forecast. Teams were on Hadrians and Point 5, Hadrians looked ok but Point 5 looked very white with a lack of ice?after some safe route finding and snow pack observations we finally made it to Tower Scoop which was in great condition with fat blue ice, routes above here like Smiths and Indicator Right Hand also were holding blue ice. 2 quick steep pitches and a great bum slide got us back down to the CIC hut safely before further big squally showers passed through dropping what felt like bucket loads of hail and graupel. Winter work has finished but winter on the hill hasn't, your always learning in the winter environment. Big thanks to everyone over the winter for the work, support, chat, banter......

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday 1 January 2015

All change, Happy New Year!

A mild few days over New Year will have stripped back the snow cover but colder weather is on the way. Alex was a client that last year broke some ribs just before his course started, we managed to squeeze his days in, between Christmas and New Year. 3 days in the Northern Corries and a day on Ledge Route, Ben Nevis covered all the boxes.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Winter Skills

I spent the weekend working on a Winter Skills course at Glenmore Lodge. We had a real mix of weather conditions and underfoot things are shaping up nicely for the rest of the winter. The snowpack has had a bit of a thaw which should stabilise things but also stop it getting blown away! Climbing conditions are still a bit thin but everything is frozen. There is a new resource available this winter which has been funded by SportScotland and is called " Be Avalanche Aware". Its in the form of a leaflet and its also available via the link below. Id recommend having a look at if your planning on venturing in the mountains this winter!

http://beaware.sais.gov.uk/

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Sunday 7 December 2014

CIC Hut

A great couple of days staying up at the CIC Hut on Ben Nevis, Glenmore Lodge staff training/climbing. Very early season conditions but maybe not for long with this weeks weather forecast.