Sobering thoughts

Few British mountain goers can have missed the tragic news of yesterday when a large group of people were avalanched in Coire na Tulaich on the Buachaille and, unfortunately, 3 were killed.
Its been a while since we had this volume of snow and with increasing numbers of people visiting the hills in winter its easy for us collectively to 'forget' that black spots like this can be very dangerous. The SAIS forecast is an excellent service, blogs like this one can give some information about conditions, but an hour of thaw or snow, moving a hundred metres from where you dug your pit to assess the slope, a few degrees change in aspect or a hidden terrain feature can all put us in harms way. IF you feel you have a gap in your knowledge and want to learn more something like the workshops on avalanche awareness at the Fort William Mountain Festival or one of the Avalanche courses at Glenmore Lodge (have you tested yourself with this excellent quiz) could make a difference to your undersanding of avoiding becoming the victim of an avalanche.

Glencoe snow again

Jamie B and I were hoping to go and try something he's had his eye on for a while but when we woke to earl heavy rain confirming the forecast we abandoned it for SCNL in Glencoe. The snowpack had thawed a little overnight but we were very careful picking our way to the bottom of Pinnacle Buttress Grooves. I only got 1 feet up it when the snow arrived in force and then spent the pitch struggling with the spindrift. We abseiled back down and crossed to North Wall - described in the guidebook as loose. Jamie was offline prospecting for interestin climbing when the block he was hanging from (and that had his gear behind) moved providing a heart stopping moment. By this stage I was cold enough to be happy to climb up to him and was pleased to find that surprisingly North Gully wasnt holding much fresh snow so we headed up to retrieve our ab tat and home for a warm bath. Ed Chard was on Ordinary Route Central Buttress finding it quite time consuming under very heavy snow, otherwise we didnt see a soul.

Snow, snow..... and more snow

After a wild night in the West we woke to snow at sea level today. Jamie B and I each had a pair of clients to take out and with the copious amounts of fresh white stuff we opted to go to the Zig-zags on Gear Aonach. We found that Rocio and her team had the same idea and were quite happy to let them pass us to break trail (thanks guys). We headed into the coire at the south end of the ridge and dropped back down to the car as the weather worsened. Well done to the team on the first day's wild winter mountaineering. For those wanting an update on conditions its copious amounts of snow with soft slab forming in sheltered locations at about 800m, our high point today.

Today I was out with a party of 4 people lookng at introductory winter skills in Glencoe. After checking the weather and avalanche forecast last night we got an early start this morning to make the most of the weather before the predicted storms arrived. We went to Stob Coire nan Lochain and looked at movement on the snow using the boot and axe with and without crampons, emergency snow shelters, snow profiles and a walking Rutch block test before the predicted bad weather arrived sending us safely back to The Ice Factor for a brew.

Teams were out on Dorsal Arete and Tilt or something around that area. The water ice on the paths and low down on Summit Buttress from a week or so ago is all gone but there was plenty of wind transported snow about and evidence of sloughs beneath Forked, SC and NC Gullys.

Climbing Wall Awards

I'm indoors for three days hiding from the weather in Glasgow Climbing Centre running Climbing Wall Award courses. The bright side is that some of this precipitation will fall as snow higher up brining some much needed snow to top up the limited amounts we have been chewing up climbing for the past few weeks! Out again at the end of the week. Until then Mike from Abacus has a reminder of the Fort William Mountain Festival from 6-14 March this year. We can hope for good late season conditions as we've had the last couple of years, slightly quieter routes than the February school holidays and great entertainment in the evenings too.

Wednesday Thursday

I've been out doing som winter climbing with Alsion and Alistair for the last 2 days. We enjoyed and icey Garadh Gully yesterday on ben Nevis. I lead the first 2 pitches and alistair took over for the rest - his first winter leads and Alison's first multi=pitch climb. Today we went to Dorsal Arete in glencoe as a slight thaw settled in. Alistair led coping well with the verglassed cracks and despite being a bit knackered from yesterday well done to Alison for her first lead of a pitch as well.

The last 3 days.

On Friday evening Nina, Davie and I went to the Ice Factor to spend a little time loking at efficient movement, gear placement and retreating from ice climbs in advance of their upcoming honeymoon to Japan (i'm suitably jealous).

Yesterday and today I have been out with Merlin and Michael looking at mountaineering ropework and some skills specific to the International Mountain Leader syllabus. Yesterday we went to Ben Nevis and looked at moving around on the narrow firm snow patches on the way into Coire a Ciste. Then we moved up into No. 3 Gully which the guys led using snow anchors to belay from. The right fork gave a small icey step to add interest. Ice was continuing to build (there is more in Garadh and on the line of the Curtain than 5 days ago) and the snow is iron hard. Parties out on all the usual suspects mentioned in the last post. Mike Pescod climbed the bottom half of 2 Step Corner, Richard Bentley climbed Comb Gully Buttress with a spicey icey finish and a party who climbed Gardyloo reckoned the final step would provide a shock to the average Grade II leader.

Today we went to rockier ground to look at some ropework and chose the Zigzags on Gear Aonach in Glencoe. A little light rain lower down was providing a dusting of much needed snow on the tops to supplement the copious amounts of water ice around. We came up and down the same route so didnt see the tops but in general the peaks are looking whiter than yesterday round Glencoe although it is just a light cover over the ice, frozen turf and pathes of very hard old snow in hoolows and gullys.