Skills Around The Boulder

Orion Face, Ob Ridge, Point area

Abacus Mountaineering - Winter Climbing

On Guy's second day of his weekend he wanted to learn some of the basics, so we headed up to the Douglas Boulder and Observatory Ridge snow slopes. We had a long session on slipping, sliding, stopping a slip, and stopping a slide before we moved on to the East Ridge up to the Douglas gap. There we went through the nuts and bolts of abseiling. We moved on to Observatory Gully to look at snow anchors and some of the theory of how to stay safe in and around snow.

At this altitude (up to 900m) the snow was heavy with rain, soft and sticky. This made trail breaking difficult, but the snow was good for solid snow anchors. Moving up the East Gully was secure but a little heavy going. A team had climbed the West Gully. There were many climbing teams bailing left, right and centre today, but Mike Pescod climbed one of the CIC ice falls with Waterfall Gully, and Richard and Tony and Mark climbed a new VI,5 near Green Gully.

Guy learning the ropes - or actually arresting, with a great backdrop

Guy on his way out of East Gully

Guy getting to grips with body belaying

Guy trying various abseil techniques off a bollard

Douglas Traverse

Ben Nevis Castle Area

Today was the last day of the Jagged Globe Winter Mountaineering course for Wendy, Dan and Tom. I was working with Tony Halliwell. We decided to head for the Ben. The Ben track was covered in snow causing difficulty for everybody. Only one car made it to the top car park. Again the team wanted to look at winter leading, so they could have their own adventures after the course. We chose the Douglas Gap West Gully and Traverse (I*). Kenny Grant and Ben Wallace both led ropes up Fawlty Towers today.

Ben Nevis looks a little more wintery now

Wendy on the left. Tony Halliwell and Tom on the right in West Gully (I*)

We had West Gully to ourselves. There was some fresh snow, but the old neve was still there to make progress easy.

Wendy in Douglas Gap

There were some accumulations of snow in the East Gully, but not enough to cause concern, and it was only patchy. A quick abseil took us down to the neve lower down. From here we could see the bottom of Point 5 Gully and a team of 3 retreating from it's base.

A quick abseil down East Gully

The start on Point 5 on the right hand side. Just after this photo was taken I spotted a team on 3 retreating from the base of Point 5.

So finished a terrific week for the team. They had great fun in the 'Scottish weather', and enjoyed all the climbing. Hopefully they're eager to come back for more...