Nav Assessment

Stob Dearg - Buachaille Etive Mor

Today was the last navigation assessment day for the first year students at the University in Fort William - WHC, UHI. I was with Ellen and Freya. The weather was cold and clear, and the views away from the low lying fog in Fort William were brilliant. It took a long while to de-ice the van this morning, and everything I saw during the day looked frozen!! I've not seen as much roadside ice in Scotland as this since 2010.

Ellen and Freya busy with their navigation, with Stob Coire Raineach behind

All the views were breathtaking

Congratulations to Ellen and Freya for passing their assessment today.

Blackwater Reservoir

Ben Nevis in the centre - hopefully there were some people on it today to take advantage of the conditions

Last Sunday - The Rack And Rope Go For A Walk

The moon, just to the right of Castle Ridge

Last Sunday the weather was forecast to be excellent so we made tracks for Ben Nevis, hoping to find a suitable frozen mixed climb for Lena and myself. The Ben was more breathtaking than normal as the moon passed behind Castle Ridge and the sun rose behind the Ben.

Sunrise behind NE Buttress

Right-Hand Chimney (IV,4**) on Moonlight Gully Buttress

Plan A was to check out Right-Hand Chimney on Moonlight Gully Buttress. It did look a little choked with snow, so that would mean a lot of clearing, but we were up for it. Lena racked up and set off. She soon discovered that the turf was pulling and was a long way from frozen. The loose rocks in the chimney, that  I guess would be helpful if frozen in place, were still loose. So our desire to get up the route was thwarted by the lack of freeze - again. We'd used a lot of time here so we needed a quick plan B, to still enjoy the day, so we decided to swim (climb) up Moonlight Gully.

Lena starting to wrestle with the unfrozen turf and the loose snow

Moonlight gully was filled with 'swimming snow', so at least it gave us a good full body workout. The normal little steps in the gully, that make it grade II, were pretty awkward - as close to empathising to a salmon swimming up a waterfall as I've ever got! One step up and 3 feet down. At the top of the Gully, as it breaks into Number 5, we decided to avoid doing battle with the No.5 gully loose snow fields - and we ab'ed out of Moonlight, to fight again another day. It did feel like we took the rack and ropes out for a walk, but that's the way it is sometimes.

Lena in Moonlight Gully

Ben with snow

Ben this morning

All systems go for the winter 2011/2012 season...

Goodbye Blogger And Hello Wordpress

Private Guiding

Goodbye to Blogger and Hello to Wordpress! This will be my last post on Blogger.com, and then tomorrow the live button on www.HunterMountaineering.co.uk will be pressed. My Blog will be incorporated into the new website, so the blog will continue. MaxHunter.co.uk will sit down as Hunter Mountaineering is launched! My thanks go to HotScot in Fort William for building the site, and my laptop for not breaking as I was working on it. The photos on the site are almost all mine, except for 1 from Tony Shepherd (I wonder if you can spot it!), 1 of my favourites from Zac Poulton, and 1 from Sam Leary. There were also various photographers, and Hannah posed for the photo above (where are the crampons! lol) - thank you all.

If you're wondering, none of these blog photos are from the new season, all from the last few years. 

Best wishes to everybody for a safe and happy white winter climbing/skiing/walking season ...

Walking up Ben Nevis in Winter

Winter Skills and Safety

Walking the Winter Munros

Winter Mountaineering

Introduction to Winter Climbing

Winter Climbing

A Little Wet and Warm In Glen Nevis

Ben Nevis - from Nevis Range on Monday morning

On a dry Monday morning, under a great sky of high clouds, and good visibilty, I was at work at the College at the Nevis Range with the H.O.L. students on their Mountain Biking assessment. It was mostly a completely dry day, with a little drizzle later in the morning. The clouds stayed high, and we were treated to another colourful sunset at the end of the afternoon. Well done to all the students on their assessment, there were only a couple of nav deferrals.

Fort William on Monday afternoon

Today, the weather was very different, and there was no morning heavy frost, the temperatures were warmer, with the freezing level above the summits. It rained on and off all day. But even though the rock was wet, the groups from Outward Bound had great fun climbing and scrambling up Scimitar Ridge in Glen Nevis.

Lena climbing wet Glen Nevis rock on Tuesday

Hill walking Assessment

Today I was working for UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands) at the WHC (West Highland College) on the ATM (Adventure Tourism Management) 2 Hill walking assessment. I chose Ben Nevis as the venue and so we set out from the top North Face Forestry Commission car park.


After lots of nav legs, micro, macro nav, broken ground, steep ground, emergency scenarios, river crossings, and group management we made our way to the top of Meall an t-Suidhe, where the wind really picked up. After lots of nav relocation we made it back to the bus and the assessment was over - phew. Well done everybody - a good and sometimes excellent performance.

Outward Bound

Ben Nevis without snow in the background

Today I was working for Outward Bound, Loch Eil. Here you can see we went for a canoe on Loch Eil with Ben Nevis in the background. As you can see there is no snow visible at the moment - it was actually warm today.

Gareth on Scimitar ridge in Glen Nevis.

A panorama of Glen Nevis looking West, from Scimitar ridge.

A panorama looking East.

Ledge Route In The Sun

Moving well up Ledge Route

Today I was working for the WHC and Ben and I took the second year group up Ledge route to look at their decision making, judgement and leadership skills on steep ground. It was one of those days on Ben Nevis that dreams are made of - the weather was perfect and the views were sensational.

A climber in Tower Gap, crossing to the other side

I think it was Mike Pescod that we saw quickly jumping across the Tower Gap high on Tower Ridge.

The climbers has crossed Tower Gap and are moving up towards the top of Tower Ridge

A minute or so later, Mike was standing at the top with his client, about to have their lunch with a perfect view of the highlands.

The new cairn at the top of Number 4 Gully

We met the builder of the new Cairn at the top of Number 4 Gully. He told us the secrets of how he built the cairn, especially how he got that enormous rock onto the top - by himself!!!

The snowy top of the Ben today

There is a little snow on the summit of the Ben at the moment. Tower Ridge was clear of snow from what I could see. It was a brilliant day. It was the first day on the North Face of the Ben for most of the group, and the first time on the top for at least one of the group - a winning day for all of us.

Dry Days

Name that climb? (Kinloss Grooves)

At the moment we're enjoying some dry, and relatively warm days around Fort William. We had a good day in Glen Nevis today, on warm(ish) dry rock. For some of the day it was t-shirt weather.

Lena on dry rock in Glen Nevis

Lena loving Glen Nevis Slabs

Unfortunately there was somebody in need of rescue from the bottom of Scimitar Buttress (Nutcracker Chimney) - best wishes to them.

Models On Ben Nevis!

The north face of Ben Nevis from the start of the CMD ridge on Saturday

Last Friday Lena and I met up with Tommy Martin (Tommy Martin Photography) and Thomas Coxon (Marketing Manager - Sprayway) for a recce for the photo shoot to promote the new Sprayway AW 2014 Mountain Range Clothing.

This weekend Tommy, Thomas and Stu (Marketing Managing Assistant), joined us again, for some very different weather. We spent Saturday on the Carn Mor Dearg Arete walk, and today we went up to Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis to do some simple scrambling, with some north face backdrops. The mountain and the weather just about played ball, and Tommy said he got what he needed. Lena and I managed to get through it all without any major wardrobe malfunctions! It was great fun - but I'll never say that being a model is easy!

The Catalogue will get published and the range launched in November 2013, but will hit the shops late 2014. See if you can spot anybody you recognise in the photos (I grew a little stubble - I'm shaving tomorrow)!!

Ben Nevis today, before the rain

Tower Ridge and CMD

Walking on the eastern traverse on Tower Ridge on Saturday 12th October 2013 (7 of 10) from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon on Ben Nevis in incredible weather. There was a little ice on the walk in to CIC and even more ice higher up. As I started up Tower Ridge I could hear lots of shouting eg 'on belay' - so I started to look around, and I saw a team on Observatory Ridge, and about 7 people on NE Buttress (Chris, Craig, John, Lee, James, Simon + 1 other). I watched them all having fun on the mantrap and using classic tactics. There was a little ice and snow on Tower Ridge, but not enough to cause a problem - but I did wear gloves for half the time. At the top I met up with Chris and John, who went that step higher from NE Buttress to visit the summit. We went down together, meeting up with Lee and Craig. We parted when I went off to do CMD.
I'm trying to collect video footage of routes for my upcoming new website. I did get carried away however, because on Tower Ridge I took so many (see the videos on Vimeo) that my battery was flat by the time I was on CMD - 2 batteries next time.

Well done to everybody involved in the Real3Peaks Challenge across the UK. Congratulations Rich. The Facebook page is worth a read. James - I was nearly sick (just had lunch) when I read about the mouse!!!!

CMD ridge with Ben Nevis casting a shadow - I had it (almost) to my self

A Quick Paddle

The mist clears to reveal Ben Nevis in the background

Working for Outward Bound today Matt led a morning paddle across Loch Eil. The thick sea level morning mist slowly cleared and revealed the Ben in the distance. I had my winter tyres fitted yesterday, so middle autumn is here and winter is in sight. This morning, most of us had our first morning of scraping ice off our windows - happy days of snow and ice are ahead ...

A clear view of the autumnal Ben Nevis

Mamores Expedition

Andy and Abigail walking on Day 1 of the Exped.

These last 3 days I've been working for UHI at the WHC with first year students on the ATM course. The 6 students I had with me were Kathleen Torso, Britta Dixon, Maddy Landherr, Amanda Streeter, Abigail Goldfarb and Andy Macleod. Kathleen, Britta, Maddy and Amanda are here for the semester from the States - so I wanted to show them an excellent snapshot of the highlands, because it'll be the only expedition they get here. The weather was set so be a mini Indian Summer in most of the UK, but still with showers and strong winds in the Highlands, so we knew we'd be using our waterproofs and planned to camp fairly low and keep out of the wind. Although the college had issued the students with brand new unused Quasars..

Andy doing his navigation early in the day - day 1.

Here are Amanda and Britta - with Ben Nevis looking majestic behind...

Kathleen taking care across a stream.. This is clearly early in the exped, before we all got wet feet after crossing miles of bog and streams.

Britta had decided to pack her roll mat inside her rucsac the night before. She said she had to stand on it to get it in (!) and now needed asistance form Maddy to get it out!

Hilarious!

We eventually chose a campspot and enjoyed the lack of rain or midges. We then had a late after noon navigation session, then a quick break for food, before starting our late evening night micro-navigation session. We eventually got to bed after 10pm.

Andy (showing us his leg prosthetic) and Abigail.

Andy is on an inspiring and truly remarkable road to recovery after losing a lower leg 6 months ago in an accident in Fort William. He is already back to his previous standard on his mountain bike, and is walking with more balance than most people. Later this term he wants to climb Ben Nevis, and at College he's due to continue his paddling and climbing progression. (When we did the kit check and I asked people how many socks they had packed for 3 days, I got the usual answers from most - 2 pairs or 3 pairs, but he laughed as he told me he had 5 separate socks for only 1 foot!).

Watching the sun go down as we put our stoves away before the night navigation.

Day 2 in the rain. Andy leading, being followed by Amanda.

Yes, the sun did come out on day 2.

Sun rising on day 3. The day started dry and warm (the rain found us eventually!).

The sky started to get moody.

As it turned out Amanda loves waterfalls - so we had 20mins of being tourists at Steall Falls and took a million photos - awesome.

We covered the full syllabus required for preparation for their Hill Walking assessment in a couple of weeks time, so good luck to them all. Thank you for great company for 3 days in the Scottish hills.