Learning To Lead And Safety In Winter

Today I was working for Adventure Peaks. During our early morning meeting, whilst the clients were finishing their full breakfast.

It was difficult to believe the weather forecast at this point - southerly winds gusting 80mph, cat 4 snow hazard and multiple wet snow instabilities and cornices prone to collapse. I headed, with James and Radim, for Stob Coire nan Lochan. They were keen to learn to lead, build winter belays, rope management and above all - risk assessment and winter safety. Tomorrow they have the option of leading a route for themselves, or being guided up something bigger..

We discovered later that teams on the Ben witnessed huge cornice collapses and one team was caught in a massive rock fall, escaping with only minor injuries. The hills can sometimes be a wolf in sheeps clothing. Take care out there..

Warm Strong Southerly Winds Drive Us Indoors

Still working for Jagged Globe, we made plans to avoid the ferocious 85mph forecast gusting winds and driving rain/sleet - we booked for The Ice Factor. With an early start we coached the team (Steve, Stu, Simon, Nevin and Kieron) on techniques

for steep ice. After ice slabs, walls, slight overhangs, wood icicles, mixed climbing and chimneys we retired to the cafe. The team then rotated round, technical ropework, outdoor drytooling (on the impressive new high ropes module) and indoor lead climbing.

We even managed to squeeze in a couple of hours on the outdoor drytooling traverse and bottom roping venue.

Happily pumped the course drew to a close.

The good news though is that this thaw that we are experiencing now is due to end abruptly on Sunday with a rapid freeze - so we're gettinbg excited about some potential awesome climbing conditions for a few days.

Zig-Zags, Up and Down

Today we had a forecast of gusting 80mph southerly wind, so we found shelter on the North-East Face of Gearr Aonach. On The Zig-Zags we took the opportunity to get Simon leading (in the photo), taking coils, moving together, and looking forward to a potential Alpine climbing course in March. He wanted to look at multiple abseils, so after our abseil retreat he was ready to book on his alpine Jagged Globe course.

... All the while, the RAF were on an exercise in Glencoe. Always makes you stop and think.

Dorsal Arete

Today I was working for Jagged Globe.

We chose to go to Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe - here is the view as we got into the Coire. The climb we chose was Dorsal Arete. There is still a huge amount of snow but much less than the waist depth of last week. I was climbing with Simon from Copenhagen - here he is bridging up before we arrived at the arete proper. The arete was thick with semi consolidated snow, but was the mixed, exposed challenge Simon wanted.




On the other side of Broad gully was Andy Stotesbury leading Nevin and Steve up Langsam (II/III***).

At last we got some good weather today - the sun even came out for some minutes in the blue sky - before the wind picked up...

Friends on West Face of Aonach Mor

Ken, Dave and Hannah from Outward Bound - Loch Eil - Hi Max, here are some pictures of today. The walk in was long but fine despite the soft snow. Finding the routes on the West face is a bit tricky due to the similar nature of the granite ribs and varying snow cover. We set out to climb Western Rib. We moved together over all bar one tricky section (photo of Dave and one of me on the tricky section). The route was in pretty good condition, some soft snow but plenty of frozen turf.

All in all an awesome day! Han :)

Thanks Han for the report.

With the popular East face too dangerous at the moment, the West face is a sensible safer option (but many climbing teams are venturing over to the Cairngorms for daily trips, finding better weather and conditions).

Aonach Mor, Snow, Snow, Snow

Today I was with Ed Chard and Jagged Globe. We investigated the huge amount of snow at Aonach Mor, and Aonach an Nid. The depth of snow did make progress hard at times, but recent settling has reduced depth of foot (leg) penetration. The East face still holds a huge amount of dangerous soft snow. It'll be at least a few days before anybody goes down Easy Gully. The photo shows an example of a large unstable cornice hanging over the east face. We lowered members of the party over a safe edge to practice their skills.

We found rime ice building on many aspects so high rime ice routes on the Ben may be shaping up (if you can get to them).

24th Jan. A Good Climb / An Awful Day

Chris Walker and I headed onto the Buachaille North Buttress for some classic mixed action. We found a safe way in and up, but being a Saturday so did others teams. One team got there before us, so the climb and belays were very sociable. We did 4 pitches of fantastic 3 star mixed grade 4. The photo shows me on pitch 2.

We were aware of lots of helicopter action behind our backs and later discovered the awful truth about the avalanche in Coire na Tulaich. By now everybody must surely know about the trajedy. Take care everybody.

17th Jan. The Goggles Come Out

Ian Walby, Chris Walker and I returned to Aonach Mor. The cornices had grown and windslab had built up. We took a look at Easy Gully and witnessed an avalanche. The exit to Easy gully was sporting ! I provided much entertainment for Chris and Ian, were they taking photos, belaying or laughing? ...

13th Jan. Conditions Are Changing

I went to Aonach Mor with Chris Walker. We started with Left Twin. The ice had deteriorated but still solid.

The photo shows Chris on pitch 1 of Left Twin.

4th Jan. Cold Conditions Over New Year

Awesome conditions take Ed Abbley and I onto Left Twin. We did this climb on the 4th Jan, just before our drive to Swansea the same day. Photos shows Ed abseiling into Left Twin (orange helemt) and Max on pitch 1.

2009 Winter Season Starts

Poor conditions at the beginning of the season lead Chris Walker and I to do some dry tooling down the road from Fort William. Fun, but we hope for better conditions soon..