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.

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.

Winter is on its way....

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

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......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.