The last few days Dave has been out introducing Tom, Suzie and Neil to the delights of Scottish Winter Mountaineering and the Ice Factor. We visited Stob Corrie nan Lochan and descended broad gully, covered more than a normal mountaineering course at the Ice Factor during the worst of the weather and on our last day we braved the conditions and headed to the East Ridge of Beinn A’Chaorainn.
We didn’t complete the ridge possibly due to Dave’s lack of confidence in the snow rubbing off on the gang but also the image of many people on the ridge in poor weather reminded them of the queue up Everest last year, it was not the place or the weather to be held up yesterday.

With more snow overnight and high winds forecast for after midday, we decided to stay low with vis and climbed the Spur on Sgurr An Fheadain. This great route is under graded at I and is easily a II, with many tricky sections.

The crux of the day is the snow, and traveling safely, fortunately this route has a few descent options. With Seonaid MacDonald & Ian at the Skye Winter Festival

The thaw from last week hasn't left us with many route options, so for Neil and James' second day, we decided to go for Tower Ridge, a route that can be climbed in almost any condition and is always good fun. As we walked in this morning, there was a slight dusting of fresh snow down to about 1000m and as the day progressed, things became whiter and whiter.

Whereas last week, we didn't put crampons on until the start of the Eastern Traverse, today, we donned them from the start. We made steady progress up the ridge and soon found ourselves on the summit plateau, from where we descended the Red Burn. Amazingly, it's possible to pretty much stay on good snow all the way to where the burn crosses the main mountain path.

The week ahead is looking quite wintry, with quite a bit of snow due over the next few days.

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For Peter's final day, we enjoyed our third day of adventures on Ben Nevis and this time, rattled up North East Buttress. Despite the thaw, there was still quite a bit of snow on the easier angled sections and we opted to wear crampons from the start. There was also still quite a bit of frozen vegetation and there was even a bit of verglass on the rocks and vegetation in the upper reaches.

We descended via Coire Leis, which gave an excellent descent, entirely on snow, right back to the foot of the First Platform. There is still ice holding on on the Little Brenva face, so when the temperatures drop, these routes will come back in pretty quickly.

So, that wraps up three days with Peter and despite the conditions, we've had three brilliant days exploring Ben Nevis and despite the current conditions, have managed to squeeze in some good climbing and have given Peter a good flavour of what Ben Nevis is all about.

I had a day off today, but wanting to make the most of the current conditions and also wanting to explore something off the beaten track, James and I had a quick hit on the North Face of Mullach nan Coirean in the Mamores, where after a quick look at the crag, we decided on Disco Corner, a short route on the left-hand side of the crag.

The route starts up Captain Caveman, before peeling off left and continues up a series of short corners and ramps, offering some short, steep steps. Unfortunately, the snow, as many others have found over the weekend, was next to useless for axes, so a bit of care and thought was required along the way.

I think with a few more freeze-thaw cycles, the crag would be well worth a visit, but for the time being, I wouldn't rush up there in a hurry! Nice to explore somewhere new though and the views to the south and funky cloud formations helped make it all worthwhile.