The Highlands at their Best

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Today was possibly the best day of the season so far, with wall to wall sunshine and barely a breath of wind. When it’s like this, the Scottish Highlands really are at their best, and quite possibly one of the best places in the world. Ken kicked off our final Winter Mountaineering Course of the season, with an ascent of Sron na Lairig, with Dave, Paul and Giles. Movement was the focus of the day, and with the snow being so firm, good and steady movement was essential, both in ascent and descent. They also bagged the summit of Stob Coire Sgreamach as well. The only other person they bumped into all day had walked over from Bidean nam Bian.

Steve and Neil also had solitude on Aonach Mor, with just two other teams for company they climbed Western Rib, which was baking in the sunshine all day. The route is however suffering in the spring heat , with turf getting softer with height and rime falling off the rocks throughout the day. What an amazing day to be outside!

Proper Scottish Winter: Bidean nam Bian

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(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.

High winds on Ben Nevis

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Up on Ben Nevis, our two CIC Hut teams were doing their best to avoid high winds. Steve, Finn and Philip went for an adventure and climbed Lost the Place high up in Coire na Ciste. Whilst normally known as being an interesting (and underrated) mixed route, at the moment it’s pretty much an ice route and not quite so easy to protect. The top chimney is actually an overhanging icicle which was great fun and warrants V,6 overall.

Stu, Pat and Ian made short work of SW ridge of the Douglas Boulder, climbing it in 4 pitches before escaping into West Gully.

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Beinn Udlaidh and Ben Nevis

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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!

Day 1 CIC Hut week

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Stu and Steve are up at the CIC Hut this week running our March 5 day course. Steve was out with Philip and Ian who made the most of a truly alpine ascent of Tower Ridge which is in perfect condition. There is a track along what is now a narrow crest of snow, there’s even a steep ice pitch before the little tower to contend with. They descended Ledge Route which made of the perfect day of mountaineering.

Stu, Pat and Finn made short work of Observatory Buttress before traversing over to indicator wall. Ice is brilliant at the moment with all the classics getting ascents including Orion Direct, point five, Astral highway, hadrians direct, slave route and sickle.

Skiing at Nevis Range

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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!

The Beast from the East may make a return next weekend…‪Beast from the east, p

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The Beast from the East may make a return next weekend…

‪Beast from the east, part two?‬

‪Another burst of Siberian air may push westwards over Europe next weekend. It’s unlikely to be as intense or as prolonged as the last cold spell. Nevertheless, it brings the possibility of snow, frost and a late season chill back into the mix…‬

Windier than expected on Stob Ban.

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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.

A Slow Thaw: Curtain Rail & The Curtain

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Today marked the final day of both our intro and advanced winter climbing courses. Steve, Chris and Michael had plans for West Face of Aonach Mor but were quickly shut down when the gondola didn’t run. They had a quick turn around and wander up to Stob Coire nan Lochain to get established under Eastern Slant which gave slushy and quite tenuous climbing. They rapped off and retreated to the I’ve factor for a couple hours of coaching on steep ice.

Ken and Ryan went for an icy hit on Ben Nevis. They climbed the Curtain Rail before making an ascent of The Curtain itself. The ice was quite slushy and insecure. Ice at lower levels is on the way out unfortunately buy higher up tue mountain things are still looking promising.

White Shark, Aonach Mor

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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.