Bothy Holiday in the Snow

I was working for UHI at the WHC on the Outdoor adventure Ledeadership course with Dave, Andy and Ben. The students have already been on a mountain bike and canoe exped, and now was the time for the last of the exped trilogy - the walking exped. We headed over to the west coast and the Ardnish Penninsula, planning to camp around the Peanmeanach Bothy.

The snow was down to sea level, but below 300m it was never too deep, to walk easily through.

With the snow down so low, the hills looked like munros. The sky constantly looked threatening..

We took a roundabout route, teaching and testing their navigation.

We were fortunate to get snow taking the visibility down to about 50m. This was the first day walking on snow for some of the students.

We delayed our progress and had a late lunch waiting for sunset and the dark for a few hours of night nav down to the bothy. This area turned out ot be a great spot for all levels of nav training. We arrived at the bothy at 6.30pm.

The next day we set off on day 2. The group were bursting with confidence in their navigational skills and so we set some more difficult nav legs, which they brushed off with ease.

Peanmeanach Bothy

Eigg in the mid-distance and Rum in the far-distance (with snow capped peaks).

The students managed to find a mini crag to have a wee boulder on, in the middle of the day - awesome. This became the highlight of the day - although the scenery was spectacular, and I'll definitely find my wat back here again.

Crag Problems Assessment

Jokob starts the day leading in the sun

The weather was much better on Thursday, set to be dry, light winds and an early frost in the glens. With a bus full of climbers we set off from Fort William to Kingussie Crag. Al, Gillian, Jamie, Ben and I had teams of third years from the ATM degree course at UHI-WHC, and it was to be their assessemnt day for crag problems. This is part of their Incident Management module. We got to the crag and found a team of 2 climbers from East Sussex (currently from VanDweller), using Kingussie as a second best option to winter climbing. Currently with nothing wintery to go at, Kingussie was a good dry venue for them #waitingforwinter!

Connor cruising up The Groove

I was with Jakob and Stewart for the day, and Jakob started by climbing The Slab. On a neighbouring climb Connor was on his way up. As Stewart Climbed, Jakob had some minor problems to deal with, then as Stewart neared the end of his second, he found a piece of difficult climbing, and so Jakob had to give an assisted hoist.

The sun warms the rock to start the day

Stewart and Jakob at Kingussie Crag

Later with Stewarts turn to solve problems, Jakob abseiled onto a knot in the rope, so Stewart had to deal with this, unfortunately for Stewart, that was just the beginning, and Jakob seemed to have lots more problems on his ab.

Stewart solving a problem with Jakob stuck on abseil

With Jakob taking over as the Instructor, Stewart now abseiled but quickly got cragfast and needed to be rescued with a Y hang.

Jakob rescuing Stewart from the abseil as he got cragfast

We finished the day with bottom roping, and here pretty much everything I could think of went wrong, Jokob climbed too far sideways, he got cragfast, stuck, even Stewart found a knot in his rope as he belayed.

At the end of the day with smooth performances from both Stewart and Jakob, we managed to walk away problem free, which is more than Connor could do with his boot stuck up a tree. Unfortunately, back at the college, he even had to rescue his brand new winter boots. A great day, and lots of fun for everybody.

Connor rescuing his boot from a tree - an unusual problem that Al set Connor

Mountain Bike Expedition - Great Glen Way

Doug Little and the HOL Great Glen Mountain Bike Exped Team

Over the weekend the Higher Outdoor Leadership team from the WHC in Fort William set off on their Mountain Bike expedition, to finish their mountain bike module. I was with the team setting off on the Great Glen Way, working alongside Doug. We were lucky with the weather on Sunday - we didn't have a single drop of rain all day, even though we heard there were showers in the mountains. As we started down the Glen we could see Ben Nevis, and at that time the snow line was at about 750-800m.

On the bank of Loch Lochy

As we moved down Loch Lochy, we got to the Fairy Glen, and so we took some time out to explore. I walked through 3 times and each time found something new. The group loved it and it was difficult to get them to leave and carry on theirt exped.. but on we must..

Inside the Fairy Glen

Smurf Tree in Fairy Glen

Stuffed toy circle

The group did all the navigation, leadership, and kept the pace up. We were lucky during the day to have no mechanical failures, or punctures, but there were a couple of small falls, but everybody did pretty well considering the descents and climbs we had to do. After a smooth 55km we arrived in Fort Augustus, and the team had to make a 3 course meal for all 14 of us. Here they excelled, providing 2 choices for everybody for all 3 courses. Everybody finished the day happily tired and went to bed knowing that Monday and Tuesday would be wet!

I couldn't be with them on the last 2 days of the exped, but I met some of them today and they were happily proud of all completing their exped of over 110km through the Great Glen up to Inverness - through 2 days of wet weather and up some punishing climbs - congratulations to everybody involved.

Next you have your mountain module ...

Crag Problems

The group kitting up in the quarry

Today it was time to check out the Ballachulish Quarry as a venue for teaching 'Crag Problems' to the Year 3 Degree Students at the UHI, West Highlands College. I was with Shane and Stewart and we started off with a few more simple tasks before moving onto their Y hang rescues.

Gillian Culshaw checking out which crag to use

Later with a change of venue we went through a few hoists, and they both did really well rescuing each other. There were then some more straight forward problems like getting your boot stuck on an abseil. Mostly it was a day hanging about on a rope. Tomorrow is their assessment for this module - who knows what problems they'll have to handle, let your imagination run wild. . .

Stewart and Shane on a Y hang rescue

Hail At Kingussie

Today I was out with Andy and Ellen from the West Highland College in Fort William, and after a day indoors yesterday, we went to Kingussie crag looking for some dryer weather. We got lucky. The rock was not completely wet all day - shocker! In fact half way through the day a lone climber (+ bouldering pad) turned up to solo about and do low level bouldering - so there was some dry weather optimism about. However, just after he soloed the route in the photo we got a winter hail stone shower, which was reassuringly painful on the face (bringing back fond memories of last winter!). The rock was just about dry enough to complete Ellen and Andy's 2 day introduction to Lead Climbing. It was chilly today, but I didn't quite need my new belay jacket - let's hope it gets colder soon!

The chat is all about winter and climbing (although some people are talking about walking and QMD's).

Make sure you're aware of the Torridon SAIS pilot -

PILOT AVALANCHE FORECAST SERVICE FOR TORRIDON AREA - blog

and SAIS Torridon - reports (starting 24th Dec)

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.

Coaching Rock Movement

Na Gruagauchean in the Mamores with snow in the coire down below 600m

For the last 2 days I've been with the college students working on their Rock Movement skills, based at the Ice Factor. Each day driving to work, I've been drooling over the snowy hills, trying to keep my eyes on the road. The Snow level has come down low today to below 600m in places. The low snow will remain for at least a few days with the freezing level at about 700m over the weekend. With light winds and low temperatures, it's sure to be another busy early season, winter climbing weekend on the white high crags. So it seems to be poor timing for me to be on a paddling course tomorrow - with my axes sitting idle indoors!

Connor playing on the bouldering wall

Connor doing his endurance training circuits at the Ice Factor

A Day In Glencoe

Lost Valley and Beinn Fhada behind Andrew and Sean

Today I was with the First year group from the Fort William Uni, and we headed off to Glencoe for a mountain day, in again brilliant weather. Just another day of great weather in the Highlands! We went up Lost Valley - and the autumnal colours with superb visibility were beautiful. The four, Sean, Linsay, Daniel and Andrew proved to be fit, strong and determined. Linsay and Sean proved to be carrying injuries that gave them a great deal of pain. It's rare to see people push on through such pain, and at the same time not complain or be negative. They were both inspirational today.

Andrew and Sean with Bidean nam Bian behind

It did try to snow at one point today, but it never really materialised - so just another great Autumn day.

Linsay (carefully hiding her injury) and Andrew on their way down off Stob Coire nan Lochan

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.