Winter Skills

Students on Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda

Today I was working with Mike Pescod and Donald King. We took the College students on their first day over to the Northern Cairngorms. We moved over to the NE aspect of the Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda. During our sliding about session we encountered some easily releasing slab on a NE aspect, on the apex of a convex slope.

We made our way up onto the ridge and found an exciting route for the students - day 1 on crampons.

This is Chris

I took a look at 0.5 gully and didn't like the look of it, so I came down the goat track gully.

Goggles on. An awesome day 1

There were lots of climbers about, on a wide variety of climbs - not that I could see much, through the mist. I'm just going on the climbing calls I could hear form the climbs.

Berghaus Gear Testing at GL - 2

Colours from a new jacket on show today

Thursday at GL was day 2 of Winter Skills for the Berghaus team to test their gear. The weather was very different. The cloud level had risen, mostly to above the summits. The wind had dropped even further, and there was due to be be low temps and no additional snow - fantastic. Unfortunatley due to the nature of the deep soft snow we had not found anywhere for ice axe arresting on Wednesday, and the often reliable flat ice of Sneachda and the Lochain path were buried, so no icy crampon work.

A climbing team looking into Coire an t-Sneachda choosing where to go. They followed the crowds to the Mess of Pottage.

We followed the well tracked path into Sneachda, and found that several teams of climbers were already making their way up a select few climbs. There were queues on Hidden Chimney and the Slant.

Mess of Pottage - people on Direct Start to Hidden Chimney, Hidden Chimney, The Slant.

Aladdin's Buttress - a climbing team at the bottom starting on Original Summer Route.

Aladdin's and Fluted Buttresses

Fiacaill Buttress - climbers on Invernookie

We made our way over to the Fiacaill Buttress, and with crampons, and careful route selection we made our way up to the notch to the right of the crag. There was some 'interesting' snow on the way, and Kevin's team in particular was being cautious of slope convexities, where they had found easy deep shears lower down.

Both Kevin's team on the left and my team on the right avoiding the 'interesting' snow in the centre of this slope - which showed some easy deep shears.

Team Berghaus - Loch Morlich behind

Phil. Behind Loch Morlich, there is snow on hills as low as 687m (Craiggowrie)

Angela - with Stob Coire an t-Sneachda behind her head

We made our way over to Stob Coire an t-Sneachda and met lots of climbers topping out from the Mess of Pottage in particular. The climbers were reporting a lot of rime ice on the rock, which could generally be cleared easily, often revealing a clear dry crack beneath. The snow was crusty/cruddy, unconsilidated and covered well frozen turf.

Team Berghaus had a good week, of learning about winter apparel, layering, ventilation, wicking, comfort and function - and having a good measure of early season winter fun along the way.

No. 4 buttress, Coire an Lochain, showing Savage Slit in the middle.

Celebrating a great day on 1141m at the top of the Fiacaill a' Choire Chais

Winter Is Here - Winter Skills And Safety Courses

Hunter Mountaineering has got some early season Winter Skills and Safety Courses running, before and after Christmas. Book on yours now.

The Hunter Mountaineering Website will be live next week, but here is a link to the Winter Skills and Safety Courses, advertised on the Outdoor Capital of the UK  website

Winter Skills and Safety Courses

Stob Ban - Mamores

WHC - UHI, Fort William, Winter Walking and navigation workshop

Today Andy Spink, Jamie Bankhead and I met a group of Degree Students from WHC for the beginning of their Winter Walking workshop. We decided to make our way up the North Ridge of Stob Ban in the Mamores. The group were initially working on summer navigation techniques as we were below the snow line, but as we gained height their challenge increased as the visibility reduced and the ground got more complex to manage. Carn Dearg on the other side of Glen Nevis initially looked like Kilimanjaro with the cloud below. We got glimpses of visibility through the clouds every now and then and at one point we were treated to a brocken spectre.

Kilimanjaro 5985m? No, Carn Dearg 1020m

Ed managing the group up the North Ridge

Group management

Northern Corries

Looking over at the northern corries from Loch Morlich this morning. Coire Cas in the centre.

This weekend I'm working at Glenmore Lodge working on a Winter Skills course for members of The Mountaineering Council of Scotland. My team represent the Dundee University Rucksack Club.

The top Cairngorm Mountain car park bottom left

Coire an Lochain today - great slab in the centre

We headed over to Coire an Lochan, shown above, which turned out to be a great venue for an introduction to winter skills for the team. The snow was firm initially in the morning, but with a slight rise in temperature during the day it became softer in the afternoon. There were lots of teams about developing nav skills, snow knowledge, footwork, cutting steps, stopping a slip, stopping a slide, crampon footwork, and going on journeys. As always great fun.

There weren't too many climbers around here today, but it was busy over west today on the Ben, where conditions would have been better in the morning.

Winter Skills - Sunday

A view over to Coire an t-Sneachda

This weekend I was working for Glenmore Lodge on a Winter Skills course. Today was day 2 with Dav, Phil, Jon and Henry. Today was very different weather to yesterday, less wind, and better views! The guys a great fun literally throwing themselves down a slope testing their ice axe arrest before we headed up to the Coire Cas headwall to test their crampons.

Dav on the summit of Cairngorm - his first winter Munro

Dav was happy to get to the summit of Cairngorm as it was his first winter Scottish peak. The views were amazing, and such a contrast to yesterday. We could see over to Coire an t-Sneachda to see the climbers making their way up.

A bit of nav to finish the day

Cairngorm in the background

Stunning scenery

Thank you to Dav, Phil, Jon and Henry for making my weekend so much fun. Good luck to Dav for a fun day out tomorrow in the Cairngorms - but back to work for Henry, Phil, Jon and myself tomorrow.

Winter Skills - Saturday

Coire an t-Sneachda

This weekend I was working for Glenmore Lodge on a Winter Skills course. I was with Jon Lowe, Phil Rigby, Henry Chown and Davyd Michell. The weather on Saturday was a little full on, windy and frequent blizzard conditions. So, therefore it was a great day 1 for a Winter Skills course to test everybodys ability to stay warm and organised. We headed into Coire an t-Sneachda.

Phil, Jon and Henry

Dav, Henry, Jon and Phil

Some keen climbers setting up camp in Coire an t-Sneachda

So day 1 went really well. Everybody had a full test of their equipment and loved it, and couldn't wait for more on Sunday...

Winter Mountaineering

Mark Hendry talking to the new Winter Mountaineers

This week I'm working on a Jagged Globe Winter Mountaineering Course. Today I was working alongside Mark Hendry and Andy Chapman. We chose to get a quick up lift onto the hill with the Gondola at Nevis Range on Aonach Mor.

The weather was fantastic. We went through a great deal of basic winter skills and introductory ropework with the groups followed up with an introduction to winter mountain hazards in the evening.

Winter Skills

I also met Ken and Scott on Aonach an Nid today

Today I was again out with David Barber on day 2 of his 4 day course. We headed for the Gondola, Aonach an Nid and Aonach Mor to take a look at refreshing his winter skills. There were a few groups out here on the hill today - so not quite all on our own. We met Scott, Ken and a team who had climbed up the West Face.

David battling with a cornice

We did a little ropework and had fun with some tricky cornices - Dave was keen to get involved and get some cornice action. This was part way up the ridge at around 1050m. We were later navigating around the plateau, and Easy Gully had a great deal of fresh unstable cornice build up.

Nearly over

The temp did rise quickly in the morning as predicted, followed by rain, and by the end on the day the snow was soft and there was melting evident everywhere, even at the summit.

Winter Skills In Coire an t-Sneachda

A climbing team of 3 backing off from Aladdin's Buttress

Today I was again with the group of 6 from Edinburgh Uni Hill Walking Club (Alex, Briony, Tonje, Stuart, Douglas, Justin), working on the MC of S Winter Skills weekend at Glenmore Lodge. We headed into Coire an t-Sneachda in very blowy conditions - and about the coldest windchill I've had this winter. We met about 5 climbing teams heading out of the Coire. One team retreated from the snow slopes below the Mess of Pottage - wise! We saw another team trying to climb on Aladdin's Buttress, but eventually retreated. We heard climbing calls from somewhere on Aladdin's Buttress too, perhaps Aladdin's Mirror Direct - we saw climbers at that belay.

Aladdin's Buttress, Fluted Buttress and the Goat Track - the snow slopes all loaded with slab

We made our way to the flat ice (which was in excellent frozen exposed condition) for some crampon training. After a bit of coaching and new confidence the team started the journey up the neve towards the Fiacaill Ridge notch.

Douglas with Fiacaill Buttress behind

On the Fiacaill Buttress climbers were climbing the Couloir, and Invernookie - several teams on each.

Hard neve below Fiacaill Buttress

Climbers on Fiacaill Couloir and Invernookie

Dave Haygarth with his 2 climbing clients at the notch on the Fiacaill Ridge

Dave about to head off down into Coire an t-Sneachda

A final bumslide towards the end of the day

At the end of a great journey, we looked at ice axe arresting to complete all the objectives that the team wanted to look at this weekend. Great company - thanks for a great weekend.

The lower section of Fiacaill Ridge in the background

We found lots of patches of unconsolidated slab on our journey today, with unstable layers and easy shearing. There was a small patch of slab about 10cm thick that we couldn't avoid on the neve up towards the notch on the ridge, but a determined front point easily penetrated through to the neve below. Even the lower section of the ridge had patches of unconsolidated slab, which we were able to work around.