Avalanche !!

Strong winds and heavy snow showers continued to give conditions of some character this week - leading to some high risk avalanche conditions right across the Scottish Highlands - a good opportunity to put some avalanche awareness skills to a very real test ! Thankfully we enjoyed some days respite - making use of the artificial ice climbing wall at Kinlochleven on one day and by using some scoured routes / ridge routes on the other days - it was a full on winter experience ! Thanks to Tim and Alex for enduring the changes of plan because of the weather and for James' / Julians' determination to enjoy even the most challenging of days, especially as it was definitely a case of  'in at the deep end' for Julian

Mess of Pottage

A ridge of high pressure brought better conditions to the Northern Corries on Tuesday, and despite the avalanche warnings of 'high ' risk, the moderate winds helped to scour the 'Mess of Pottage', allowing even gully climbs to be completed - with any windslab patches, easily avoided. This gave us the chance to progress Jon & Ed's course to more technical ground, and for both to enjoy their first winter lead - well done guys ! - especially as the conditions required some sound judgement. There were a number of teams out and a very friendly atmosphere on the cliffs - everyone was relieved to have found some good climbing considering the ups and downs of the recent weather!

Cairngorms winter

It's definitely still winter in the Cairngorms at the moment, with some very hard snow proving resilient to last weeks rain and thaws - the good stable conditions were enjoyed by some winter skills courses at the weekend, members of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland making the most of their fantastic mountains. Monday introduced some more challenging conditions, with strong winds and heavy snow extending beyond the forecast, fortunately Jon and Ed were keen to look at navigation and avalanche awareness as part of their course - perfect 'real world' conditions existed for this, with some 'dodgy' slopes requiring some caution - a steep learning curve !

Snowdonia snow

Last week's thaw stripped the mountains of its wintry coat, leaving only a few snow patches in sheltered gullies, thankfully the weather has been dry and cold,  allowing some limited winter skills training this week, and although we had a bit of a walk to get to the best areas, the pleasant spring like conditions made up for it. Cwm Cneifion was very popular with several teams out making the most of the only complete line in the area - Easy Gully. There were some areas of ice building up, and the paths were very icy - giving us the chance to practise our cramponing skills before getting onto the steeper snow slopes - which were in excellent condition. Day two took us up to the Trinity face of Snowdon, and although the big gully lines were not complete, we were able to try out some ice axe braking and looked at snow anchors - we found a  4m ice step to play on, and even placed an ice screw !
A very pleasant day in the sunshine !

Winter Scotland

Plenty of snow and ice in Scotland to play on this week with heavy snow showers mixing with some beautiful days to give some enjoyable climbing and skiing conditions - I even had a go at skiing on a rest day ! We also found a little bit of ice to play on in Ben Udlaith ( the only place we could get to after one particularly heavy snowfall left everywhere else in knee deep powder ) The thaw which started in mid week will help to consolidate the new snow and hopefully improve conditions for the next Scottish courses. Unfortunately the thaw has removed a lot of snow from the Welsh mountains this week, so it looks as though we'll miss out again on good conditions for the weekend climbing course in Snowdonia - at the moment the Cairngorms seem the best bet ! - looks like I'm going to have to either going to have to buy a private jet or move to Norway !

Scotland's winter

The weather and conditions have continued to be better than forecast,  allowing courses to progress without too many changes of plan. So far this week we have been able to progress some basic winter skills up to multi-pitch climbing and enjoyed some fantastic Scottish mountain scenery - as well as some very Scottish spindrift thanks to a strong Northerly wind !
Thanks to Helen and Michael for their determination to get as much as they could from the last few days.

Scottish winter climbing

It has been a good start to the New Year winter courses so far, with excellent conditions and reasonable weather, we have made the most of the last few days,
with training covering a lot of the different skills needed for climbing in winter - navigation, route choice, avalanche awareness, ice axe and crampon technique, ropework and anchors. Ed and John managed to progress through to leading a grade I route ( Jacob's Ladder ) as per their aim - not a particularly steep climb, but quite a steep learning curve - topping out into sunshine, good views and a well earned lunch !