Tower Scoop

Today (Tuesday) I was working for Jagged Globe alongside Ed Chard on their Snow and Ice Climbing Course. We went to take a look at the Ben. When we got to the CIC hut, the wind was much stronger than we had expected and the gusts were quite powerful. We could see quite a lot of snow moving about and building in some areas. We decided to go into Observatory Gully, with a view to doing Tower Scoop (III**). We found the snow to be patched with windslab, but as we gained height the patches coalesced, but with careful route choice a safe route was possible close to the Scoop. The snow here was a tricky again, so we pitched up to the rock, and enjoyed 2 pitches on the Scoop. Topping out the neve was solid. The wind at this point was regularly gusting, and the snow into Tower Gully looked dubious so we decided to go down Observatory Gully instead. This was only a short ice climb but a great day out.

The video is poor quality but gives an idea that the ice is building. Point 5 looks terrific..

A quick look around Observatory Gully on the way to Tower Scoop from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Winter Mountaineering

This week I'm working on a 5 day Winter Mountaineering Course for Abacus Mountaineering.

In the end I only had 1 client for the week - Ryan Wilkes - from Basildon in Essex. I needn't worry about him being fit enough - he generally runs a half marathon every weekend! After looking at the weather and Avalanche forecast we headed up to the CIC hut for a look about... We discussed strategies for walking and moving, with a theme of energy conservation and efficiency. We moved onto the snow and continued with our theme. We worked on staying on our feet but moved onto slipping and sliding.
We started to look at avalanche avoidance and winter route choice. Later with crampons on we explored all the ice above CIC in the gulches - a great day out, and we were only a little bothered by the wind and rain - why let that spoil a great day out!!

Here Ryan is getting on with sliding - and starting to learn about stopping a slide...

Okay, my fault, I made him pose for the photo!

Ice, ice, wonderful ice !

Short Roping With Chris Ensoll (AMI CPD)

So on Saturday morning I got up early again to drive from the West over to Glenmore Lodge in the East. Somehow I managed to get there in time for breakfast and to pick up my packed lunch - major success, this finally helped me wake up! Glenmore Lodge was hosting the AMI AGM and today my CPD was with Short Roping Guru Chris Ensoll. Okay bring it on...
Here in the photo Chris (L) is taking on the new AMI Chair (R) - Paul Platt - all in the name of short roping... !

Within seconds we were learning. Here Stuart is moving up the slope. The whole day was spent myth busting and challenging our MIC world of short roping!! Within a couple of hours everything we thought we knew had changed!! The truth was out!! The 'secrets' include coaching walking, a little salsa dancing with the hips and dynamism! Easy, done !!

Here we go... Look for the anatomical straight lines, hips and smiles :)
I've got about 2 pages on notes to write up form the session (I'm writing this on Monday night, and today I used a lot of what I learnt in my coaching today - great stuff).
Thank you Chris for an excellent session and AMI for a great weekend. I even managed to get some shopping done in Aviemore on Sunday - for a few more outdoor essentials!

South Post Direct

Today I was out with Andy and Mark again. This time Andy persuaded us to meet him at the Meggie car park at 7am !... Eventually we said okay! (never wanting to start early!). After about an hour of walking I started to wake up.
The photo shows Andy Stotesbury leading pitch 1 of South Post Direct (V,4***). When Andy started to gear up I realised he had brand new axes again! This time, I was fully jealous - a pair of brand new Nomics !!

I had time to look across and see a team get up Last Post (V,5***)

Mark Hendry's turn to get up pitch 1

Mark's turn to lead. He took us neatly up pitch 2 and 3.

Lochan a Choire had a great broken icy top. A beautiful view...

My turn to lead. I'm heading up pitch 4 - which turned out to be an emotional accent of cruddy snow. My gear (ice screws) seemed to be superficial and cosmetic... 1 screw even fell out and ended up back at the belay! Awesome!

Here's another pitch of crud, but this time more interesting with some rock thrown in.

Getting closer to the top - not bothering with gear any more - and full on 'winter' belays!!

Well - if you want my bulldog - we had to leave it at this belay, it proved impossible to get out.... So it's up for grabs - go get it !! It turned out to be an awesome route - but quite long, 7-8 pitches... Bring on tomorrow.... Cheers Mark and Andy..

If only a day later

Given that Stuart and I could only manage a day out on Friday we could only hope that the good weather would move in quicker than forecast.  Unfortunately not; Saturday and today has given
us nice crisp conditions with great visibility for the most part.

Heading into the corrie

So in we went to the northern corries again this time because we had a time limit in which to get out and play.  Given that when we got into Coire an't Schnechda the Mountain rescue box was under snow and none of the crags were visible; we headed for the Mess of Pottage.
In the poor visibility and high winds we strayed too high and ended up near the rim of the corrie.  Needless to say at this point I wasn't best pleased and for some reason wasn't in the right mindset for down climbing and getting on a proper route.  Quite frankly we were a bit pi##ed off that yet again we were forced to get out on a day that provided us with great climbing conditions yet rubbish weather.

So, after lunch on the plateau we navigated to the cairn at 1141 and headed back to the car in somewhat windy and biting weather...

Alas, we will not be beaten as our resolve is hardened and our determination even greater whatever the weather (70mph winds excluded!).

CPD At The AMI AGM - Advanced Movement Coaching

Glenmore Lodge indoor wall

On the Sunday at the AMI AGM weekend at Glenmore Lodge I attended the 'Advanced Movement Coaching' CPD session run by John Kettle. I wanted to find out how to improve my own climbing without simply the solution 'get stronger', and to be better able to coach others. The day started with strategies of how to tackle motivation (the pyramid), smart target settting, and looking for goals in all the year round climbing disciplines. We moved to the wall and started by looking at the absolute fundamentals of balance, different types of balance (use of the balance triangle), and the listening foot. We moved onto reading / planning climbs, breathing, fixing - especially facial fixing. In the afternoon, we worked on the balance triangle, twisting, flagging, and active flagging. A day that worked the brain as well as the body.

An excellent day of training, which I have started to put to use indoors. Thank you to AMI, Glenmore Lodge and John Kettle.

On a different topic - Look at the programme of Safety Lectures being run this season at the Clachaig Inn. The first is this coming Tuesday with Mike Pescod.

CPD At The AMI AGM - Snow Anchors

The load cell George brought along. Here it reads 0.67kn of maximum force for the test on the snow anchor.

Last weekend was the AMI AGM. It was a good chance for lots of Mountain Instructors to get together for a good social. Apart from a successful AGM there was a broad range of CPD (continual professional development) day or part day sessions available. On the Saturday I joined the session run by George McEwan on the 'Use and abuse of snow anchors'. We found some snow slopes with fresh snow deposits. We wanted the snow anchors to fail so that we could compare the maximal force required to reach the point of destruction, to get an idea of which anchor type was stronger/weaker. We used a load cell which measured the maximal force (measured in kn). With each anchor we considered the surface area (SA) being utilised and the symmetry of that SA.We did lots of tests (but the amount of data is insufficient to be scientifically analytical) and the reinforced axe was consistently stronger than the single buried axe (perhaps double?). The basic mountaineering axe was not noticeably stronger than the slightly curved mountaineering axe, but was perhaps stronger than the curved tech axe.


A shear fail of a buried axe (1) from Max Hunter on Vimeo.


A shear fail of a reinforced buried axe from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

A bullhorn arrangement for the nomics

We did bullhorn buried axe tests for the Petzl Nomic axes and the DMM Apex axes. We tried various bullhorn configurations - with different levels of overlap - maximal overlap shown in the photo, reduced down to a small overlap (making the bullhorn longer). The reduction of overlap did not seem to increase the strength of the anchor - perhaps it even reduced the strength. The bullhorn has good symmetry, and even though reducing the overlap increases the SA, it did not seem to increase strength. The bullhorn generally failed after a single buried axe but was not reliably stronger than (or as strong as) a reinforced axe.


A shear fail of a Bullhorn arrangement buried axe from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

We tested 2 Deadmen snow anchors, and these proved to be very strong, but were very dependent on the angle of insertion into the snow. They did seem to be repeatedly stronger than a reinforced axe anchor. Deadmen have a very large SA and are perfectly symmetrical down a vertical axis through the cable.

We moved on to build bucket seats. We managed to destroy an obviously weak bucket seat, but could not destroy the second seat.

We moved on to measure the impact force on a climber as they fall past a belayer in a bucket seat. The load cell was attached directly to the falling climber. We used body belaying (with a non dynamic arrest and with a very dynamic arrest), and a belay plate (at least 3 belay plates were tested) with dynamic and non dynamic arrests. With non dynamic arresting the maximal force was over 1kn, but with a hugely dynamic arrest (with body belaying or belay plate) the maximal force was down to 0.4kn. The skill of the belayer seemed crucial here to reduce the maximal impact force.


An impact force test on a falling climber+a belayer in a bucket seat using dynamic belaying from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

We built 2 snow bollards. The first was what we would like to build, for successful abseiling, and the second was of a size that we thought would probably fail. The smaller bollard is in the photo below. Both bollards withstood abseils (without belay plates). Finally we tried to fail the larger bollard, and measure the maximal force we could apply to it. We could not fail the anchor.

Abseiling off the 2 snow bollards

The smaller of the 2 snow bollards

It was an excellent day of CPD. Thank you to AMI, Glenmore Lodge and George McEwan for the day of training. (George I hope I haven't misrepresented any of the tests/results or training).

Trying to destroy the larger of the 2 snow bollards

Twisting Gully

South Buttress, Central Buttress and North Buttress of Stob Coire Nan Lochan

This week I'm working for Jagged Globe on their 'Snow and Ice climbing course' - alongside Ed Chard.

Today I was with Fred and Tariq. who aren't new to snow and ice, so we thought we would kick the week off with a look in Stob Coire Nan Lochan, with a view perhaps to do Ordinary Route on Central Buttress, but I thought I saw people on it, so we went for Twisting Gully (III,4****) instead. Ed was in NC Gully with Adrian and Jim. There was a team on Intruder who had a good day, and there was a team on Central Grooves. I also saw Scott out with his team heading for the Summit Buttress.

Fred and Tariq in Twisting Gully

Twisting Gully was in great shape and had seen a lot of action at the weekend. The crux was fairly straight forward with solid neve about.

Fred gaining the ledge on the left wall

The neve was terrific on the entire hill. Even the cornice was safe today and easy.

Tariq on the same move moments later

There was a fair amount of wind today (enough to make sure the Nevis Range Gondola didn't run - causing a great deal of extra walking up and down for some teams today), and there was some transportation taking place.

Fred abseiling in Broad Gully

After a great climb, we had a mini abseil session in a secure Broad Gully. Just before this I had seen Louise Beetlestone lead the fine arete of Dorsal Arete (how many more times will she be up there in her outdoor career!)

Thank you to Fred and Tariq for great company, and I look forward to tomorrow.

Association of Mountaineering Instructors AGM

This weekend I'm up at Glenmore Lodge for the AGM and workshop weekend for the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).

Today there were a number of workgroups covering various aspects including GPS, Transievers and Dry toolng to name but a few.  I was taking part in the Mountain Leader Training providers workshop.  This looked at helping those providing or working on MLT courses such as CWA, SPA, ML etc.

The group chat at Kingussie.

Steve descending the icy step demonstrating the 'wrist wrap' technique.

Nick Bullock gave us an entertaining evening lecture talking about his exploits in the last year.  So now I'm relaxing with a cup of tea whilst the masses ply themselves with the abmer foaming ale.  Up in the morning for more workshops and meetings.

Avalanche Awareness With SAIS

Today Mark Diggins ran an excellent SAIS Professional Development training day for AMI and BMG members. This was a joint event for Jagged Globe and West Coast Mountain Guides. We learnt about all the latest developments with SAIS. SAIS have 5 areas for which they produce avalanche reports. There is a section on the website to study recorded avalanche activity. There are 5 observers blogs to read (eg Lochaber). You can get the forecasts on your mobile, or get daily updates via the new SMS message service, follow them on Twitter or find them on Facebook.

We looked at the latest developments in producing the avalanche reports, teaching avalanche awareness and decision making.

As usual on a Mark Diggins/SAIS training day, I learnt a great deal, and will adopt lots of these developments into my avalanche awareness teaching in the nest 2 months.

The short video shows Mark conducting a burp test,

SAIS CPD Training day with Mark Diggins from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Thank you to Jagged Globe and West Coast Mountain Guides. Thank you to Nevis Range for the use of their facilities.

Thompson's Route And Watching A Grade X Acsent !

Mark Hendry, Andy Stotesbury and I headed on a fantastic day into the Ben, to 'have a look'! First day for us to climb together, and Mark is in full prep mode for his MIC assess, so what would we go for... In the end we plumped for Thompson's Route (IV,4***) on Number Three Gully Buttress. Here Mark is finishing the steep section of pitch 1. Today Andy was sporting his brand new Quarks - very impressive!

Greg Boswell on The Banshee (V,5*). Look at his Blog . So this was on our left and on our right, a german team were in full attack mode on Greg Boswell's new X - to the left of the secret, round the corner.. A lot to distract us from our route. Especially when we heard a scream and the german leader fell off the X - dropping an axe in the process. They calmly lowered to the belay... - and set off again...

Mark finishing one of the steep sections of pitch two.

Mark is finishing the steepest section of pitch 2. He's managed to do it without bridging out to his right. I was all over the bridge.

At last Mark's turn to lead on pitch 3.

Here is the German team after they both got to the top of the X (don't know it's name - only 4 weeks old?). The route takes the wall (overhanging?) in the sun below and slightly left of the team. Their photographer got all the action - we'll have to wait 'till the magazines to see if he got the fall...

The route starts a little below the shadow on the left wall.

Mark and Andy stride off towards No.4 for an easy descent.

Mark and Andy watching people crossing the gap on Tower ridge.

Andy and Mark. It was a great day... So we'll go out tom (Friday) somewhere too...

Ledge Route

The start of Tower Ridge

My last day with Dave, we wanted to finish with something on the Ben, either a guided route, or something for Dave to lead, or partly lead himself. We found a great deal more fresh powder snow than I expected. When in Observatory Gully we found that Zero Gully had recently avalanched, and Point Five was showing powder release as well (with a party climbing on it at the time). There were lots of teams heading up onto Tower Ridge, Indicator Wall and Smith's Route areas but, with lots of powder releases on several slope aspects, I didn't think it wise to follow any of these teams. There were several teams heading out of Observatory Gully area for a different plan. We had a quick think, and once we observed avalanche debris high in Coire Na Ciste below Number 3 Gully, we decided to move onto plan E - Ledge Route (II****) - for Dave to lead half of the route. The route was great, and we shared it with several other parties.

Dave navigating off the Ben

Dave wanted to use the last part of the day to practice his navigation - and the clouds obliged this by coming and going with perfect timing. Unfortunately Dave has to get back to work on Monday, but that gives a few more days to play in the snow...

Hopefully nobody was caught out with all the snow movements today.

SAIS CPD

Ed Chard at Jagged Globe organised a day of CPD with Mark Diggins (IFMGA, IVBV) from the SAIS at Aonach Mor... We all turned up to learn about the new developments at SAIS and the new ideas on how to evaluate snow safety...

Ed Chard wrote a report for Jagged Globe.
Zac Poulton was there and wrote a report.
We all learnt a lot about new evaluation techniques and ideas. Take a look at the new section on the SAIS site - 'Recorded avalanche activity'. 1 avalanche has been recorded in the last 48hours, but today Andy told me that some climbers on Aonach Mor today were hit by a falling cornice and it sent at least 1 climber 20m down the climb !!!

Buachaille Etive Beag

Dave

Today, again working for myself , Dave and I went out on day 3 of his 4 day course. Today was day 2 of his winter skills refresher. We headed out to Buachaille Etive Beag for opportunities to look at nav, ropework, snow evaluation and decision making.

We only saw 1 other person, but saw lots of evidence of a winter skills course from yesterday. We had a great day, got to the summit of Stob Dubh, got through everything I wanted to cover and even finished the day with some quality sliding. On a separate note - it was a 4 glove day - my first this winter season!

Ropework At The End Of The Course

Trish enjoying her abseil

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering

With travel worries affecting the end of the day, the Winter Mountaineering team decided to have a local day and focus on belay systems, ropework, and have some fun with a little drytooling. This enabled the group to chat about future plans, courses, trips, expeds and 4 of the team hope to come up to Scotland and practically put to use what they have learnt this week. Thank you to everybody for a fun week - and thanks for feeding me with chocolate.