Mountain Diary and Conditions

Ken: It seems like days of good weather are like buses; you wait a while, then two come at once. Today was another stunning day in the Scottish Highlands, with similar conditions to yesterday, with maybe a little more wind on the summits. For day two of our Winter Mountaineering course, we headed to the West Face of Aonach Mor, where we climbed Golden Oldie. The crux today was probably the approach slopes, which were as icy as I’ve ever known them. The team certainly had a great introduction to front-pointing!

The route felt quite alpine today, with some sections almost completely bare of snow. Due to needing to pitch the approach slopes too, the route felt longer than usual, and gave the team plenty of time mountaineering on a variety of terrain.

On the summit plateau, we popped over to the East Face, to have a look a the crags. There’s a huge contrast between the dry rocks of the buttresses to the north of Easy Gully versus the rimed up and very wintry buttresses to the south.

(Steve): Having evacuated the CIC Hut early yesterday; Stu, Pat and Ian took a leisurely approach with some coaching in the Ice Factor. My team mates Finn and Philip were super keen so we went for an adventure on Bidean nam Bian. Needless to say it was blustery on the walk in but psyche was high so we stuck with it knowing we could get shelter once close to church door buttress. We climbed the classic West Chimney in three pitches before making an exciting abseil through the great arch. A proper Scottish Winter experience for Finn and Philip, who took it in their stride and embraced every minute of it.

Ken: The ice is holding on on Beinn Udlaidh, but only just. Dave and I had a quick hit today, and climbed Ramshead Buttress. The ice on the steeper sections was generally fine, but the snow lying on the easier angled ground, between the steeper ice, was variable, and required a bit of care. Only one other team in the corrie today, and they made fairly short work of Quartzvein Scoop. The ice should survive the next wee thaw.

Meanwhile, our CIC Hut Teams have been getting stuck into classic ice climbs on Ben Nevis. Steve and his team climbed Green Gully, which was in great conditions, and left them with smiles all round. Stu and his team were firing on all cylinders and climbed Sickle, Central Gully and Central Gully Right-Hand. Not a bad haul at all.

Also climbing on the Ben were Andy and Jon. They climbed Glover’s Chimney, and continued up Tower Ridge to the summit.

It felt like spring in the valleys, but with all the ice that’s around up high at the moment, this promises to yield great late season ice climbing, well into April and possibly beyond!

Ken: A slight change of tact today. With such a promising forecast and with good snow cover on the hills, Hannah and I decided that today couldn’t be wasted, and so we spent most of the day skiing at Nevis Range. Sure enough, we soon popped above the clouds and enjoyed skiing in the sunshine.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Over on Ben Nevis, our CIC Hut Team, ably led by Steve and Stu, also made the most of the brilliant weather and climbed Tower Ridge and Observatory Buttress/Indicator Wall. Tomorrow will bring more of the same conditions, so get out there and make the most of it. This is when the Highlands are at their very best!

Ken: Today turned out to be far wilder than the forecasts suggested, with the winds gusting over 60mph at 900m. Jon, Phil and I climbed the East Ridge of the North Top of Stob Ban, along with another West Coast Mountain Guides team, led by Jamie.

Needless to say, it was a touch breezy at times. Conditions on the route are generally pretty good, with plenty of consolidated snow throughout. We didn’t hang around on topping out, and made a fairly swift exit down the north ridge. The weather seemed to ramp up a notch at about 3pm, as the winds and precipitation increased. It’s looking to be far more settled over the next few days though.