West Face on Aonach Mor

Today was the first day of a Scottish winter mountaineering course and I have been joined by Nina, Chris, Andy and Andy. With a high avalanche risk on North and East aspects above 900m and of course slopes threatened by steep ground above we chose the West face of Aonach Mor as our venue for the day. There is stacks and stacks of snow in the Highlands right now, more than I can remember seeing ever before! It has been snowing on and off all day and had been all night last night so avalanche avoidance was a big theme of the day. Our wind scoured aspect provided soggy snow lower down but it hardened up nicely above 800m and after a winter skills refresher we enjoyed 5 pitches of grade 1 ground looking at the fundamental differences between winter mountaineering and summer scrambling, including the use of snow anchors and rock anchors where they weren't buried! A great day out and some proper winter conditions! 

Video from today

Heres a short video from todays climbing and skiing on the Carneddau:

Walk, Climb & Ski in Snowdonia

I have been out with John today, keen to make the most of the snow here in Snowdonia. Web reports suggested lots of powder so I thought it sounded ideal for getting the skis out and trying to combine a bit of touring with a bit of climbing. We carried skis into Cwm Lloer and to our delight found a complete Broad Gully (I/II). There was a bit of spindrift being blown down but the snow was well consolidated and had refrozen overnight. John is a tad heavier than me and didn't find the going quite as easy, seeming to sink with each step in the lower section! It gave a great climb though and plonked us nicely onto the East Ridge of Pen Yr Ole Wen. We put skins on and made our way to the summit, enjoying a quick ski and then skins back on to make our way to the summit of Carnedd Dafydd before skiing back down into Cwm Lloer.

Did we need the skis? No. Were the climbing conditions great? No, it was too warm at +4c. Did we have fun? Hell yeah! :-)

One of the reasons I love my job:

Hi Rob - Do please forgive my delay in getting back to you since saying cheerio in in Glencoe a week last Sunday. The passage of time has in no way dimmed the unbelievable pleasure I derived from you course. I enjoyed every minute of it, learnt so much and generally re-kindled my love of the hills especially when my winter activities had always been restricted to low level paths. That was until I joined you and a fine bunch of like-minded guys for our Saturday training day and our outing on the Sunday when we summited - my first winter ascent of anything - Buachaille Etive Beag in Glencoe which was simply magic. I merely wanted to record my thanks for the weekend and indeed your patience as I practised with varying degrees of success the ice axe arrest techniques. I appreciate there is more rolling around the snow to do before I have the thumbs up from you. Fear not I be back for more of the same! Your overall regard for safety and the professionalism with which you imparted these new skills was reassuring and easily absorbed. This added no end to the enjoyment of being in the outdoors in winter conditions and for that I thank you again.
For now, Rob, best regards.
Bob, Winter Skills Weekend Jan 2014

Read more testimonials here: http://www.expeditionguide.com/testimonials.php

Valley Blanche

We spent the last day of our trip on the Valley Blanche yesterday. We skinned to the Col D'Entreves in the morning and enjoyed fresh tracks back down to the classic route. An awesome end to a great week. Home now for a week. 

Off piste in Chamonix

Simon and I have enjoyed a great few of days off piste skiing here in the Chamonix valley. We had a good dump of snow on Sunday night and enjoyed fresh powder yesterday off piste from Le Tour and again yesterday off the Brevent. Today we enjoyed off piste off the lifts first thing before doing a short tour into Switzerland, enjoying over 1000m of vertical descent on fresh untracked powder- awesome! It's been great putting some avalanche avoidance decisions into action whilst on skis and with so much going on here at the moment and of course getting some awesome skiing in too! 

Avalanche Course

I am in Chamonix this week for some off piste skiing and touring and kicked the week off with an avalanche course based at Le Tour. It was a great refresher and we enjoyed some good powder with more on its way tonight. Tomorrow could be great! 

Off to the Alps

I have been at home all week, have had a stinking cold and its been raining. Its still been great though because all of the kids have been at school and Kate and I have been out for coffee every day, lovely walks just the two of us and generally remembering what life was like 19 years ago when we first met! Anyway off to the Alps tomorrow to shred some powder with friends and do a bit of CPD with the avalanche academy! :-)

PS my LandRover is also up for sale if anyone is interested: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201401241267295

MTUK Mountain Skills Courses

Mountain Training is launching two new personal skills courses for new and improving hill walkers on 1st April, 2014. We are approved providers and will be running the new Mountain Skills course here in Snowdonia. 

The Mountain Skills course is an ideal choice for walkers interested in applying their countryside walking skills to the mountain environment. Ideally, participants would have done some basic hill walking previously and have a reasonable level of fitness. Skills in map and compass, mountain weather forecasting, movement through steep ground, planning and preparation, emergency procedures, seasonal effects and the mountain environment all form the syllabus of this course. 

You can read more about the course on our website here: http://www.expeditionguide.com/mountainnav.php

Buachaille Etive Beag

For the second day of our winter skills course the boys and I headed up Buachaille Etive Beag today, enjoying some sunny spells and fresh snow as well as a great summit and some skills practise along the way. The snow was still pretty firm on Southerly aspects but pretty soggy on anything with any depth, reports back from the Ben tell of a similar thaw that will benefit from tonight's re-freeze.

Winter Skills

I have been joined for the weekend by John, Bob, Darren, Andy, Graham and Carl for a Scottish winter skills course. We spent our first day today at Aonach Mor where we looked at axe and crampon skills, movement on snow, ice axe arrest and avalanche avoidance. There was quite a bit more fresh snow than had been forecast and a great deal of wind transportation which made for good teaching and learning. It was also colder than forecast which was ideal as we stayed dry! Another great day.

Cairngorms

I have had a day off today so headed out with Huw, back to the Cairngorms, to make the most of the overnight re-freeze after yesterdays thaw. We enjoyed great neve as we made our way to Hells Lum, hoping to climb Deep Cut Chimney. Several other parties had the same idea so we enjoyed a quick romp up Hells Lum (III), down the Fiachall Ridge and then climbed The Seam (IV,4). It hadn’t been climbed for a while and so there was lots of cleaning but Huw did a great job of digging the gear placements out and the snow was good too. As usual we had plenty of giggles along the way, another great day out. 

Tower Ridge

Charlie, Simon and I climbed Tower Ridge today on what has been another stunning day in the Highlands. We walked in with the intention of doing Ledge Route but the ridge had been on the boys hit list for a while and it was calling me like a siren so they didn't take much (any!) persuasion to change objectives. We were the only team on it and the snow was generally good although deep! Getting out of Tower Gap was more challenging than normal but lots of fun. Another great day.