West Coast winter courses

My winter courses have moved over to the West coast for this week - and we have been lucky enough to enjoy some good weather and conditions despite the recent thaws - with plenty of good snow and ice on Ben Nevis and high up in Glencoe . A great introduction to winter  climbing in these beautiful mountains - with ascents of some of the classics, including Dorsal Arete in Stob Coire nan Lochan and the formidable Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis - which  thankfully, was in a very friendly mood on Monday.

Cairngorms

After a good days skiing on Sunday in some lovely sunshine, my winter courses in the Cairngorms have started with more typical weather - pretty up and down, but without too much drama. Monday was wet and windy, but yesterday was much improved and there were quite a few teams out enjoying the early season conditions, including some old friends - Hi Shona & Don. We concentrated on some of the basics, especially looking at the potential for windslab avalanches, as the strong wind is providing us with plenty of examples ! More challenging weather  forecast for tomorrow - at least it provides 'hands on' experience in coping with poor conditions - its not always a blue skied winter wonderland - that would be too easy, wouldn't it ????

Winter season start

Pressed the last of the cider apples this week and the wood shed is full - so roll on winter ! The reports of snow on the Scottish mountains and the forecast for more is a relief as courses start in the Cairngorms the week leading up to Christmas, however, Snowdonia isn't showing a lot of promise and I have had to cancel next weeks course after the thaw and rain of Thursday's storm - a bit disappointing as this time last year the ice was excellent - I even ran an ice climbing course in the Brecon Beacons! We're heading to the Cairngorms on Saturday so packing the ski's, ice axes, crampons etc this week and getting more excited - especially looking at all the webcams.

End of season climbing

Another busy few days at the end of the season - making the most of the good weather with a mixture of outdoor / lead and intro courses for Wesley,Tyler, Lola, Liam, Joseph and Delyth - a very easy and enjoyable few days for me, just right for getting into the holiday mood for our trip to the Picos De Europa, with hopefully warm sunshine and golden limestone against crystal blue skies - although last time we visited we had 50cm of snow overnight !

Back to work

Back to work this week with courses in the Wye Valley and North Wales, luckily the weather was much better than anticipated - especially for Renai and Grant, visiting from Australia, they even got a fleeting view from the summit of Snowdon - despite the severe weather warning ! A few glimpses of autumn sunshine in the Wye Valley were also very welcome for lead and introductory climbing courses as I was concerned that poor weather might spoil one of my busiest weeks so far this year, thanks to all for an enjoyable few days climbing !

French Alps Trip

Just got back from the Alps today - surprised that I don't look out of place with a scorched face, it seems the weather has been just as spectacular here !
After a couple of days acclimatising Rob and I headed to our objective - the Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit, but being fried on the approach glacier we were disappointed to see the route in poor and dangerous condition ( its not been snowy or cold enough of late to create good conditions ) so we headed back around to the Cosmiques Hut  for an early night and earlier breakfast ( at 03.00 am ) so that we could give plan B a try - The Trois Monts route to Mont Blanc. It seemed we weren't the only ones with at least 6 other teams heading out the door at the same time.

Setting a steady pace we managed to reach the summit first, just after dawn and were lucky enough to have it to ourselves - a rare occurrence on such a perfect day - handshakes and smiles all round. We were back down by lunchtime for some R&R in Chamonix - finishing off the trip with a very relaxed climb up the Cosmiques Arete and a tandem parapente flight from the Plan De l'Aiguille for me ( I was even lucky enough to be allowed the controls for a short while - scary !! )

End of Summer ?

Heavy rain today - so I get a day off !! - I'm almost relieved as it has been a busy few days and I've got an excuse to interrupt the Alps training, what a shame !! A big contrast with the the recent good weather enjoyed by all of last weeks courses, especially Friday when Freya, Kevin and Peter were surprised to find such good rock climbing so close to home ( about 30 minutes drive away !) and on Saturday with Hugh and Kim who live even closer. Not many other teams out either leaving us the choice of routes for James and Cedd's lead course. Thanks also to Andrew and Murray for some enjoyable and entertaining climbing. Just feels that the season is getting towards the end and time to get out the mountaineering gear - big boots and warm clothes ! I'll be putting together my winter programme soon as I am already getting enquiries for some ice and snow courses - how time flies !