Winter Mountaineering on Ben Nevis & Aonach Mor
For the past couple of days, I've been out winter mountaineering with Will and Amanda. There's no hiding the fact that things have been rather lean recently, but there is snow in the highest corries and summits.
Yesterday, we made our way up into Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis to find quite a bit of well-frozen snow (and far more than this time last year I should add). This meant putting on crampons fairly low down and making our way up to No. 3 Gully, from where the pair led themselves up. We then popped over to No. 4 Gully, which we then descended. A few other teams making the most of the colder conditions.
As yesterday drew to a close, there was quite a bit of fresh snow coming down and despite a slight rise in temperatures this morning, there was still a good bit of snow hanging on to Golden Oldie on Aonach Mor today. We looked at moving together and keeping the ropework simple yet safe. It was a pretty wet day, so not one for hanging about! We didn't need crampons today, but an axe was useful.
It looks like we should see wintry conditions from the middle of next week onwards, keep those fingers crossed!
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