White Shark, Aonach Mor

Ken: For day four of our Advanced Winter Climbing Course, Ryan and I took the gondola at Nevis Range, and abseiled down Easy Gully to then climb one of the classics of the crag, White Shark. We were in the clouds, and along with the rime on every surface, everything looked almost uniformally white. That is, until we started making our way up the route, and revealed ice that proved to be a little brittle in places, so took a bit more work to secure the tools. That said, the climbing was steady away. The crux ice fall was a bit on the lean side, and whilst easily thick enough to climb, required a tricky traverse to gain the hanging groove that binds the left hand edge of the ice fall. We made a short rising traverse to the right on the final pitch to avoid the cornice. Ryan did a great job climbing the route, which was definitely a bit trickier than usual. Apologies for the lack of photos. With everything being so white, nothing really stood out in the photos.

Steve and his Intro Winter Climbing team were on school house ridge , where Mike and Chris led themselves with Steve alongside, offering coaching.