Aonach Mor

Sue and Alex Ekins

Jagged Globe - Intro to Winter Mountaineering

Will

Today we took the Intro to Winter Mountaineering course to Aonach Mor. The Gondola wasn't running - not a surprise really, it was predicted to be a windy day - so we started our day with a walk. There were also some climbers heading up to the East Face for a climb too. At the end of the day, the climbers said they got down Easy Gully, but didn't climb anything due to poor snow quality. We headed up to Aonach an Nid and found lots of snow. It was snowing with a strong westerly wind, so there was a great deal of snow being transported about. There were patches of slab building, but initially these were easy to spot and avoid. We started the day with building a couple of emergency snow shelters, including a shovel up.

Moving on steeper ground

Mark on steep ground

Sue about to get over the edge

We got onto a little steeper ground, still avoiding the slab patches. When we topped out onto the ridge, we were still able to avoid the scarp slope slab, and new slab on most of the lip.

Climbing over the edge on Aonach Mor from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

The wind picked up and made life exciting for the team - most people reached for their goggles. At the end of a great week, I think people have found new hobbies in indoor climbing, outdoor winter climbing and winter mountaineering.

Other teams were climbing on the Ben, Ed Chard climbed North Gully and Andy Owen climbed Green Gully. There's still a great deal of winter up there to go at.