Day off

A wet day in Lochaber and other than a quick 10k run I've been being lazy and working on this machine.
I received a great e-mail the other day from Paul and Anne who were students on an Introduction to Winter Skills I ran at Glenmore Lodge last year:
'Anne and I thought that you would like to know that we have been putting to good use some of the skills that we learned with you on our Introduction to Winter Skills course at Glenmore Lodge in January.
We have just returned from a ten day walking holiday in Chamonix. This was a return visit, the previous one being six years ago, but on this occasion we ventured out onto the ice. We hired crampons, boots and ice axes and also a guide who took us out onto the Mer de Glace. It was a magical day with warm sun and blue skies and we went high enough up the glacier to have spectacular views of the Grandes Jorasses and ,of course Mont Blanc.
Being in amongst the waves and troughs of ice was amazing, but being able to front point up them with confidence was thanks to you.'

I love it when I hear of people I've been out with making use of the skills I've helped give them- great job satisfaction.

I also saw some good news on the Mountain Leader Training Blog about a UK wide unified syllabus on LTPD (and the pic is of me on an MLT workshop at EICA). I look forwards to some great new opportunities for professionals working in the field of climbing to share their experience and knowledge.

Finally, here is the last video from last week's excellent Assynt trip with The Glasgow Academy. It shows me taking 3 pupils up West Buttress ofnStac Pollaidh (V Diff).

Stac Pollaidh from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Out on Ben Nevis tomorrow.