Saturday 14 January 2012

Mountaineering Skills with Herriot Watt

Team St Andrews impersonating snowflakes
A solid bollard
Over the edge
Coming back up
Today was a winter mountaineering day with Herriot Watt University Mountaineering Club. The theme of the day was due to be avalanche awareness but conditions aren't ideal for that with firm refrozen snow everywhere at the moment. We started the day with a lecture at the excellent Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team base before getting the gondola at Nevis Range up onto the hill. We headed to the foot of the Nid Ridge where we reviewed basic movement skills and looked at slope angle and aspect. Making our way onto the ridge we passed tiny deposits of windblown snow on a base of solid firm snow. We used this snow to look at some simple ropework to descend past a cornice.
Plenty of folk out today in Lochaber, friends reported Green Gully as great fun and I hear Left Twin was giving first time placements and good screws for runners.

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