Day Five Winter Skills - Coire Leis

It has been snowing heavily all day and all night last night - in fact as I type there is snow falling in the garden of the cottage here in Fort William. Last night Will had to go home early because his mother was ill and Jason left amid fears of travel chaos on the M6. Paul and I headed up into Coire Leis at the foot of Ben Nevis. It was a beautiful day in fresh snow and we even got some views later in the day. We did some crampon work on some ice covered steps and looked at emergency use of the rope, including ice axe belays. We also managed the chimney pitch if the CIC hut that was plastered in ice!

Winter Skills Course - Day 4 - Glen Coe

It has been a pretty wild day today in the Highlands. It has been snowing above about 350m since yesterday, the winds have been gusting 90 mph on a Westerly and their has been a category 4 avalanche warning in place. We headed into Glen Coe today to do a journey putting into place the skills that we have covered this week. It was a great day to talk about safe route travel and to understand the importance of wind in avalanche avoidance.

I decided to go to the Col below Stob an Fhuarain which sits at 875m. This gave us a sheltered valley walk on slopes that were below the majority of the snow. Once we stuck our heads above the parapet at the col it felt like the living end! The guys experienced a proper Scottish white out with snow blasted faces and wind chill around -20 c. The wind was strong enough to pick up one of our rucksacks and chuck it about 30m. We navigated off and dropped back down to the peace and quiet of the valley.

Day 3 - Snow Shelters

One of my group had a slightly strained knee today so we made good use of the Gondola at Aonach Mor again and spent the day looking at planned snow shelters. It was snowing heavily all day and reasonably windy - there we reports of a small avalanche below Coire an Lochain triggered by a couple of climbers as we left the hill - no injuries but an indication of the amount of snow that is falling.
We built a shovel up and the photos show it before, during and after. Good warm work!

Winter Skills Course Day 2 - Stob Coire nan Lochan

We headed into Glen Coe today and enjoyed some good crampon practice, snow analysis and the summit. It was not as cold as forecast today but there was no wind and some fresh snow so it was very pleasant. Getting windy again over the next couple of days.

Winter Skills 5 day course - day 1 - Aonach Nid

I was out with Jason, Will and Paul today on the first day of a five day winter skills course. The weather was wild with temperatures above freezing and winds high enough to close the Gondola - luckily we got the only ride of the day up and only had to walk down. We covered movement on snow, use of the axe, ice axe arrest and snow pack analysis and had a good day out.

Sron na Lairig - Play

I headed out with two friends Alan and Todd today to Glen Coe. We climbed Sron na Lairig which is an Alpine style ridge, grade II. I chose it because it is reasonably low and sheltered from strong Westerly winds with a forecast of 100mph gusts. The plan worked and we had a good day despite the weather. It was warm again but the ground was frozen as soon as we got onto the ridge and the rain even changed to snow. We were in the Clachaig by 3:00pm so all was well!

Castle Ridge, Ben Nevis - Play

It was a pretty wild and windy day in the Highlands today but it was cold so Bryn and I headed up onto the Ben and had a great day out on Castle Ridge. This is the easiest of the three big ridges on the Ben and is a grade 3 route. We moved together for much of it on a plastering of spindrift snow. Unfortunately the turf was not frozen lower down but as we gained height the conditions improved although it was still pretty windy!

A good day out!

Rob

East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn

Tuesday 22nd January

We headed up the Esat Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn. The lads were keen to do some Alpine style movement on a ridge and this proved the perfect venue. There was plenty of snow on the ridge and it was a proper Scottish day with spindrift, gusts of wind and feeling fairly cold to start with although the temperature rose quite noticably during the day. There were a couple of other parties out which added to the Alpine feel!

Snow & Ice Learn to lead

I was working alongside Tim Blakemore (www.northernmountainsport.com) today in Coire Choille-Rais which is a little known destination near to Creag Meagaidh. Tim had 4 clients who were al climbers who had done some winter skills and wanted to progress to snow and ice climbing. We started off with a refresher of basic skills and then got the boys leading a two pitch snow & ice route that is not in the guide book but goes about grade 2/3. They did really well and we all had a great day out. It was a lot colder than yesterday with a well consolidated snow pack and clear skies for most of the day.

Stob Coire nan Lochan - Play

Yesterday I drove up to Scotland for the start of my winter season proper. I am up here now until the end of March with one or two forays home to see Kate and the boys.
A lot of snow has fallen since I was up here over Christmas and it is all looking a lot whiter than this time last year - or the year before! That said the temperature was a little higher today than would have been ideal but a bit of melt freeze will help the conditions build nicely.

Today my friend Bryn and I headed up into Stob Coire nan Lochan with a friend of Bryns, Alan to see what was in condition. We fancied doing SC Gully or Twisting Gully but both were looking rather thin so we plumped for Forked Gully. This is a grade 2/3 gully route that was complete and was great fun for a first day out. The photos show Alan at the foot of the route and the crag as a whole.
Rob

Scottish Winter Climbing

I have had a great couple of days up in Scotland with Alec, a good friend of mine. We drove up on Thursday of last week and camped in heavy rain just outside Aviemore in the Cairngorms.

Fridays forecast was not good so we did not rush getting up and strolled into Sneachda for about 9:00am. Only the easier gullies were in condition and all had plenty of folk in them so we chose Aladdins Mirror, a grade 1 route that is about 180m long and was a lot of fun. The weather did us proud and stayed dry although the ice was melting all around us in warm temperatures. The route was good fun and we posed for photos on Aladdins seat.

Saturday was forecast to be an improving day and so we headed into Lochain and climbed Y Gully Right Hand Route. This was a great grade II with some ice and hard neve and even a good cornice that I got to knock down on Alec below! As we headed down the clouds came in a it started snowing so perfect timing saw us back in the cafe as the weather crapped out.

Sunday was the best weather day of the forecast and they were right. We had beautiful blue skies and it was well below freezing all day. The route we wanted to do did not have enough snow in it so we climbed the Runnel, another friendly grade II with an enjoyable chimney top pitch and some nice ice. We descended the Fiacaill Ridge (grade I/II) and then headed home for New Years eve.

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Wednesday and Thursday were spent with Monica and Jane in Snowdonia. They are both in training for an expedition to St Lucia in January to climb The Pitons. We had a great couple of days in blues skies and that subtle light you only get in the middle of winter.

On Wednesday we headed up Seniors Ridge, over Glyder Fawr and across and up onto Y Garn.

On Thursday we enjoyed the North Ridge of Tryfan, posing for photos on the cannon and having the route pretty much to ourselves. Good luck to both of them in St Lucia.

Learn to lead

I spent Tuesday night this week with Matthew at Vertical Limit climbing wall in Worcester. Matthew has been climbing on the wall for a while and wanted to learn to lead. We spent a 2 hour session coaching his movement skills and teaching him the various skills involved. We are meeting up again on Monday to put it all into practice.

Navigation & Hill Skills Course

This weekend was spent in North Wales with Lynette, Yas, Chris and Terry on a Navigation and Hill Skills course. The weather was atrocious and Lynette and Yas were being trained and assessed for the NNAS Silver Awards. We had to stay low on Saturday with 80mph winds and lashing rain. The wind dropped on Sunday and we went up Y Garn.

Climbing Wall Award Providers Workshop

I spent Friday at the Beacon Climbing Wall outside Llanberis on a CWA Providers workshop run by MLTE. I am hoping to be a provider of training and assessment courses for the new Climbing Wall Award in January and we spent the day looking at how courses will be run and did a coaching movement skills workshop in the afternoon.

SPA Assessment

I spent the weekend in North Wales working with Andy Newton on an SPA Assessment. We had 4 candidates and all of them passed so well done to them.

Costa Blanca Rock Climbing Course

I have just got back from a long weekend in the Costa Blanca with Victoria, Jo and Jess.
Friday:
We flew from Bristol to Alicante and drove to Calpe where we had an apartment booked for the weekend. After a quick lunch we headed to Toix and enjoyed some single pitch sport climbing in the afternoon sunshine.

Saturday:
We went back to Toix and spent the morning coaching movement skills on the single pitch crags. I used the video camera to give the ladies some feedback on their climbing styles and to allow them to see how they looked compared to how they thought they looked.
We put it all into practice in the afternoon by climbing their first multi pitch rock climb, Lara grade 4.

Sunday:
We headed to Sella. Unfortunately Victoria was unwell but still managed to get a couple of routes in during the morning. In the afternoon Jo and Jess decided they were ready to get on the sharp end and I taught them to lead. They both lead a couple of routes and finished the weekend with big smiles on their faces. Well done all!

Monday:
Flew home from Alicante to Bristol.

You can view the photos from the trip here: http://www.expeditionguide.com/gallery.htm

Snow in Wales

I have spent the weekend working in the Brecon Beacons with fellow AMI colleague Pete Stacey. We were providing a training course for 6 women that are working towards becoming Walking Group Leaders (WGL). The WGL award is administered by MLTUK and is for leading people in non mountainous terrain within the UK.

We spent the two days looking at navigation, mountain weather, leadership skills, water hazards and steep ground within the context of the WGL.

Sunday saw the temperature drop and we spent a couple of hours in heavy sleet. It was very nice to get to a warm pub at the end of the day! All 6 women were good company and an enjoyable and informative weekend was had by all.

I spent the weekend at the AMI AGM. It was a great event and I attended a 2 day coaching processes workshop. This was 2 days of CPD aimed at increasing coaching skills for Mountaineering Instructors. It was a good practical course with plenty of climbing and even some skiing thrown in for good measure!
Monday and Tuesday were spent running and advanced scrambling course in Snowdonia with 2 clients. We had beautiful weather on Monday and did the Clogwyn-Y-Person Arete which is shown in the photo. The ground was frozen above 900m and there were large icicles about - the first signs of winter!

Yesterday we went up the Idwal Staircase with occasional showers and heavy winds on the tops. All in all a good 4 days.

Ding Dong the bells can now chime!

Yesterday was a bit different from the norm. I was asked to rescue a weight from a clock that had fallen down a local church tower.

The weight is part of a counterbalance and had fallen half the height of the church tower into a pit about 6 feet deep and 1 foot wide. I rigged up a basic pulley system using a length of static rope and managed to attach the rope with a clove hitch to the weight. It was very heavy but the pulley worked and the weight was restored to its hook. And now the church clock is working again - hoorah!