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

Winter Is Here - But I'm Indoors

So it is winter. People have been climbing and swinging axes this week and over the weekend - in good reported conditions, even if the snow is a little powdery (white is right?). So far this week, I've been working at Outward Bound (paddling!) and getting my van a makeover - thank you All-Round Signs. Today - I said goodbye to the days of personal paddling as I sold my Werner Powerhouse paddle! The money will go towards some new tech axes - everybody's happy.

Today I was back with the College in Fort William to start a 2 day course on learning to lead with Ellen and Andy - did you see the rain in the west today? So the photos give clues to my venue of choice for the session. They both did really well. We looked at the set of skills needed to lead indoors, before they put it all together at the end of the rope. Andy even had a mini falling workshop. They've both got the homework of practicing their clipping and knots, before we hit the great (wet!) outdoors tomorrow.

Ben Nevis, Or Maybe Not

The Ben on Friday at about 11.30am

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering

So on Friday we decided to go climb on Ben Nevis, on one of the lower climbs - the wind was due to be strong. As I was driving to work I could feel the strength of the wind, and then battling with the minibus over the bridge made my eyes open a little, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when people were being blown over on the path up to the CIC. In a bit of a huddle (reminiscent of rugby) we decided to go down. We eventually found sanctuary in a cafe and then the Ice Factor for some final box ticking of ropework and movement coaching before the course wound up at the end of the week.

Thank you to Dan, Peter, Ruth, Dan, John and Barry for good company and a great week. Best wishes to Peter on Tough Mudder.

Beinn a Chaorainn

This week I'm with Bill and Stu on a Intro to Snow and Ice Climb Course. We spent day 1 on the East Ridge of Beinn a Chaorainn. There was a great deal of snow, and mostly very poor vis. The climbing was excellent as usual...

Stu did an excellent job of being in charge of the nav from the summit back to the van - which included finding the tricky SE ridge... Well done to them both for an awesome day 1...

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.

Stob Coire Nam Beith, Some Grade 3 & 4 Ice

A piece of the Aonach Eagach ridge. Cloud was covering it for most of the day. In the foreground is Ahnambeithach and Loch Achtriochtan, in Glencoe.

A piece of the Aonach Eagach ridge from a higher altitude, but still only showing a small part of the ridge.

Today I was working on a climbing course. We decided to start the course with some training on some water ice in Stob Coire Nam Beith, on the North Face. We climbed on the steep pitches making it grade 3 and pieces of 4. We followed this with a couple of abseils off ice. A great start to the course.