Alpine Conditions

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Steve and Hannah enjoyed great weather and conditions on Ben Nevis today. They climbed Wendigo on Coire na Ciste which has some great ice low down, decent mixed pitches and some not so great ice up high. The Cornice is passed on the left and is fluffy, steep and difficult to pass.

For their final day, Ken and his mountaineering team had an aborted trip up to Aonach Mor, with one of the team suffering from a mysterious stomach bug. Instead they headed to Glen Nevis, which was bathed in sunshine. There they scrambled up Scimiatar Ridge whilst looking at various belaying techniques, before a session on personal abseiling, an often overlooked, but hugely important skill to get right everytime. It was sunny and dry enough that a few folk were out rock climbing! Not bad for February!

Henry has been running our advanced winter climbing course which has also just come to an end. They climbed the Curtain on Ben Nevis….. ‘An absolutely mega five day’s with Kev’ and Diggy, we visited some quality venues and were treated ice climbing classics. Scotland is the place to be!!

Cirrus, Beinn an Dothaidh & East Ridge, Beinn a’Chaorainn

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Ken: For the fourth day of our Advanced Winter Climbing Course, Henry took Kev and Diggy to Beinn an Dothaidh, where they climbed Cirrus. Whilst a bit lean and tricky for the grade,the ice that’s there is good, and the route is well worth climbing at the moment.

Our Winter Mountaineering Course ventured to Beinn a’Chaorainn, where we climbed the brilliant East Ridge, which Freya, Rich and Tom led throughout. The snow, as everywhere in the Highlands, is bullet hard, but fortunately, with huge steps all the way.

Finally, Lou was out with Mick, Jake and Brian in and around Ruth, on the West Face of Aonach Mor. Unfortunately, they dropped a Black Diamond Viper Axe (black, hammer) today, so if anyone comes across it, please get in touch.

ADVANCE WINTER CLIMBING

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We are looking for one participant for an Advance Winter Climbing Course 12-16 March. Having recently filled all of our 2018 courses, further interest has meant we are willing to run one more to finish of what is shaping up to be a prolonged season.
If you are interested in this opportunity please get in touch:
info@51.38.64.114

http://51.38.64.114/courses/winter-climbing-courses-scotland-advanced/

Hump Day on Ben Nevis

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Ken: Wednesday is often referred to as hump day, so with that in mind, our Winter Mountaineering team, consisting of Freya, Rich, Tom and myself, as well as Steve who was guiding John, all headed to the tallest hump in the UK, Ben Nevis, and what a day it was!

We headed up Ledge Route, which was bathed in sunshine for quite a bit of the day. Freya, Rich and Tom each took turns leading the middle section of the route, before we headed up to the summit. For Rich and Tom, it was their first time up Ben Nevis, and for Freya, her first Munro. Not a bad way to open her account!

Steve was on No. 2 Gully with John. The managed to negotiate the cornice, which was steep, but not quite overhanging. Oodles of teams enjoying the great ice up there, with plenty of action all over the mountain. It looked like every team heading up Tower Ridge had set their alarms to go off at the same time this morning.

Henry and his Advanced Winter Climbing team found good ice on Quartzvein Scoop and Cut It on Beinn Udlaidh, which survived the thaw and is in pretty good condition.

Michael and Sammie climbed The Split on the East Face of Aonach Mor whilst Ian was on Sron na Lairig with Kevin.

Roaring Forties and Curved Ridge

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Ken: The freezing levels didn’t drop quite as low as expected, but that didn’t stop Henry and his Advanced Winter Climbing team and Dave with Ian and Matt from seeking out some great climbing.

Henry and his team abseiled into the East Face of Aonach Mor, where they climbed Roaring Forties, which they found to be in pretty good condition, particularly after the first pitch. This climb had a bit of everything along the way, from chewy ice through to turf and mixed climbing and gave Rod and Kevin a varied and interesting climb. Other teams on Left Twin, Turf Walk and Morwind.

Over on Curved Ridge, Dave and his team found the approach to Curved Ridge tough going, with plenty of soft avalanche debris to wade through. Luckily, conditions on Curved Ridge more than made up for this, with great conditions all the way. They descended Coire na Tulaich on firm snow.

I was out with Freya, Rich and Tom, and with two of the three suffering a bit with a stomach bug, we spent the day in and around Lairig Eilde, looking at snow belays and ropework.

Bit of a thaw on School House Ridge

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Ken: Today didn’t turn out to be quite as wet as expected, but there’s no denying that we’ve got a thaw in progress at the moment. That said, with temperatures due to drop from tomorrow onwards, this is no bad thing, and if anything is just what we need right now, to bed down some of the vast amounts of existing snow.

I was out with Freya, Rich and Tom, who are on our 5 day Winter Mountaineering Course. We kicked the week off with an ascent of School House Ridge, focusing on the appropriate use of the rope and simple belay systems. The team did well, and were able to start transferring their existing hillwalking and summer climbing skills to the winter environment. The ridge has suffered from the thaw, with south facing side of the ridge considerably stripped of snow. The north facing slopes are still very snowy by comparison. The summit ridge of Sgurr Bhan was also rather bare. We descended Coire Riabhach using that all important winter mountaineering technique, the bum-slide, and what a brilliant bum-slide it was too! Caspar was also out on School House Ridge, with Rob and Helen, also focusing on sharpening their winter mountaineering skills.

Over on Aonach Mor, we had a few teams on the West Face of Aonach Mor, on the various summit ribs. They reported damp conditions, but the turf is still well and truly frozen up there.

The forecast for the foreseeable future is for cold temperatures to dominate, and with a damp snow pack, this will really do things wonders, and we should have some pretty amazing conditions returning very soon! Exciting stuff ahead!

Plenty of Winter Action

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Great weather for mountaineering today, with all our teams having success on their objectives in better than forecast conditions.

Steve took Vicky and David to the West Face of Aonach Mor and climbed Ruth’s Rib which is a nice accessible climb that goes at about grade II if you stick to the crest. The route is more accessible than the summit ribs and finishes much closer to the gondola making it ideal for a more casual approach. Ken took the other half of the team; Simon and Matt to Glen Nevis where they enjoyed a short scramble on Scimitar Ridge before looking at abseiling techniques to keep themselves safe in the mountains.

Other West Coast Mountain Guides and their participants had success in reaching the summit of Ben Nevis via the mountain path, gaining winter skills on Buachaille Etive Beag, School House Ridge near Ballachulish, Hidden Chimney Direct in the Cairngorms plus the Nid Ridge and Western Rib on Aonach Mor.

On the Up

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Temperatures have risen through the night allowing a thaw of low lying snow which made for a muggy, wet walk into Stob Ban. Steve and Ken are working with a group of friends; Simon, Matt, David and Vicky all of which have great high altitude experience but with limited Scottish winter routes to their names. East Ridge North Top Stob Ban has been a great route to go to in heavy conditions and today it worked out really well. However this time we had a snow plough infront of us by the name of Jamie (+ partner) who kindly cleared the way to the base of the route, saving our legs for another big day tomorrow – thanks Jamie!

Hannah was out today with Dan and Tim on Buchaille Etive Beag. Having done a winter skills weekend a fair few years ago, they were after a bit of a refresher day with the main aim being safe route choice and travel in the mountains. Topics covered included; interpreting the avalanche forecast, route decisions once on the mountain, anticipation of when to get the axe out and crampons on, tackling steeper ground safely and walking along corniced ridges. The day helped them safely boost their confidence in the winter environment and prepare for a day out by themselves tomorrow.

Other West Coast Mountain Guides teams were out enjoying the winter weather. Mark, Helen and Maz did the classic round of East Ridge of SCNL and Dave, Mark and Michael climbed a combo of routes in the Fawlty Towers area on Ben Nevis.

Echo Edge, Meall Buidhe

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Ken: For Nick and Keith’s final day, we decided to avoid the crowds and ventured to the quiet, yet stunning corrie of Meall Buidhe (near the Bridge of Orchy), where we climbed Echo Edge. The approach is fairly straight forward, although a bit of care is required to avoid minefields of boot swallowing bog.

The corrie is well hidden from the road, but is clearly visible for those travelling by train. It’s quite a grand corrie, with the main crag of Meall Buidhe tucked away on the left hand side. Echo Edge, takes the left hand edge of the buttress, and overlooks Forked Gully, and is supposed to be 135m of climbing, but with the sheer volume of snow, the first 40m or so is very straight forward. Thereafter, the climbing rears up a bit, and gives interesting turfy climbing. Tackling the cornice, which looked benign from the ground, proved to be a bit of a challenge, but after a mixture of chopping it away, and bits coming off, we managed to overcome it. It’s a good route, in a beautiful setting, but perhaps would be better with a bit less snow. Still, a great adventure and not another soul to be seen.

Our winter skills and summits course also had their final day. Hannah, Josh and Harry were also grateful that the winds had eased and they enjoyed a fun and adventurous day on Stob Coire Nan Lochan putting all their new found skills into practice, which gave a great finale to the week.

Wild in Glencoe!

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Ken: Despite the forecasts suggesting a slightly better day today than yesterday, asides from slightly cooler temperatures, there seemed to be very little to differentiate the two days.

There was a strong West Coast Mountain Guides presence on School House Ridge in Glencoe today, with Niels, Caspar and myself with our respective teams making the most of the quick access and straight forward descent that the route offers. There’s an amazing amount of snow on the ridge at the moment, and in places, it has consolidated well, offering solid, first time axe placements.

Meanwile, further up Glencoe, Mike was out with Sammie on North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor. Strong winds and spindrift were again, a theme of the day, but the pair made steady progress up the route, before abseiling back down the line. It’s a great option in stormy weather or when there’s far too much snow up high, or in this case, both.

Also in Glencoe, Hannah spent day 4 with her budding mountaineers on Beinn a Chrulaiste. Their main focus was putting all their taught navigation skills from yesterday into practice; pacing and walking on bearings to the summit in fine style. Along the way they also found some short fun steps of ice to test their front pointing and also an ideal sheltered spot for a bit if ice axe arrest practice. Henry was also on Beinn a’Chrulaiste, and climbed the Pink Rib with the Wolf Family. It was a day of tough conditions for everyone, but there’s no better environment in which to learn and be tested in!