Cornice Capers

A very cosmopolitan day on Aonach Mor today. I detected French, Spanish, Italian, Swiss and Japanese (?) accents- there were shiny new climbing axes, battered Monsters and even a pair of knuckle bashing 'Terrors' in evidence. Today was day 2 of an Intro to Winter Climbing Course for Ben and Rich. We descended Easy Gully and turned right (because all the other footprints went left) and climbed Nausea which has its little ice pitch at the base complete. Although we were expecting a 900m freeing level it was dripping water at the base of the route. At the top of the second pitch I was faced with a sizable cornice but I borrowed Ben's Mountain Tech tools which make much better digging implements than my Quarks. After 10 minutes we had a good slot dug. Back down Easy Gully and the guys led the first steep icey groove we found- with an easier escape round the cornice this time. Karl and his team climbed Tunnel Vision and Jamie B climbed the Web and Tunnel Vision. There were lots of shouted conversations on routes off in the mist north of that. Today I was working for The Ice Factor.