Last day of the MIC Assessment- a bit wilder

Back to more like business as usual yesterday. A quick overnight thaw and fresh snow, stronger winds and poor visibility. Well.... stops us getting soft doesn't it? Mind you I'm sure the MIC Candidates would have welcomed a continuation of the recent stellar conditions!
I was out with another candidate and his 2 mock students and he correctly identified wether indications confirming the avalanche forecast on the way in so we made our way to a safe aspect to climb Fiacaill Couloir (whilst another team did Invernookie). As he took the team up the route in 6 pitches teaching as possible in the swirling snow I soloed carefully around them. Topping out it was a little blowy but a good decision soon had us descending in the relative shelter of Fiacaill Ridge.

Team about to head up Invernookie. Candidate above in the mist.

Keeping it interesting in Fiacaill Couloir

A brief view

And another

Results today (well done all for the effort- its a hard 4 days whatever the outcome) and thanks to the mock students (interested in 2 days free instruction with a potential MIC see the Glenmore Lodge website for details). Thats the end of my season at The Lodge- back to the west now!

MIC Assessment and falling things....

Watching an MIC candidate at work with his 2 mock students on Jacob's Left Edge (which has a path up it.... not foot steps.... I mean an actual path.....).
During the day we had falling ice from Hidden Chimney, falling axes from Spiral Gully and falling people on the Haston Line (ice on this and Hidden Chimney Direct thin and plating off the wet rock around it today- brittle but better on Patey's and Mirror Direct).

Sounds good on the Ben still- Minus 1 Gully is thin and poorly formed but NEB sounds great, Orion, Point 5, Zero and Vanishing all still receiving attention.

Day 2 in the Cairngorms

Second of my 2 days of winter skills in the Cairngorms for Glenmore Lodge. Today I wanted to get a little sliding in if possible, get onto some steeper ground and do some navigation. 3 out of 3 achieved. We walked in to Coire an t Sneachda, did a little self arrest work below the Mess of Pottage, the team led themselves up to Windy Col then we navigated to a foggy Cairngorm summit and back down via 1141.
Take care on the snow folks, its bullet hard and unforgiving of a slip.

Some 'interesting' rope-work around today. The 2 people walking up the apron in Coire an Lochain with 50m of rope strung between them..... what? The 2 leaders who had just run a lovely little self arrest session below the Mess of Pottage- which part of tying yourself to 4 shakey novices each and heading up the fall line towards Windy Col over that ice patch and onto the icey snow seemed a good idea? Unless you were practising something very specific and out of context with the Scottish Winter environment the point escapes me....!? Tom Patey's definition of 'moving together': "2 or more people simultaneously falling to their doom". Tying yourself to another person with no means of attachment to a hard and icey slope is not a great idea and rarely if ever necessary in Scotland, particularly with the length of Northern Coires routes/approaches/sections of steep ground. Rant ends.

A relaxing day in the Cairngorms

I don't think i've had a day on the hill without a harness and rope/rack in my bag since early January (although of course I have left my crampons behind....) so today it was a nice change to have a light bag. It was day 1 of a 2 day winter skills course for Glenmore Lodge and my 6 students and I enjoyed the warm and hazy sunshine as we picked our way up one side of the Ciste Gully (and over to Cnap Coire na Spreidhe) and down the other.
We stopped to look at various improvised snow shelters on the way and kept it nice and mobile looking at the use of the boot, axe and crampons throughout the day. Relaxing.....

Magazine picture

Here is the pic that Frank (my client from last week) put into Trail Mag after our outing at the end of November. Nice to see someone likes my photography!

Favourite kit of the winter #1

I had 2 of the old style Montane Prism jackets (and still wear one for cold weather biking) and after a brief dalliance with another soft-shell I got one of the newer type for this winter season.
The outer is PERTEX Microlight Rip-stop which has been the most durable pertex garment I've ever worn. Its done 50 days on the hill (mostly climbing and mountaineering) and shows no signs of wear at all which is saying something given how I normally seem to put a hole in most jackets within a day or 2 of getting them.
The fill is PRIMALOFT eco 40g and is a little warm for a fast walk in (but I still seem reluctant to take it off) but keeps me perfectly warm in even the dampest, windiest ming that Scottish winter has thrown at me.
The hood is my great love. This hood is my first point of call for temperature adjustment down when I'm climbing, except in the worst weather and back up at the belays- very effective as I can retreat back inside it. When its full on misery it outperforms any of the shell jackets I'm wearing at present helped by its wire peak.
If I could make minor changes I'd raise the hand warmer pockets an inch to get clear of a harness and I've put beefier zip pulls on to make them easy to feel in thick gloves.
Otherwise a really great winter weight soft shell that hacks the worst that Scottish winter can throw at it with apparent ease. I love it when kit works!

End of season update. The pic below was taken part way through a 15 hour day doing Viking Gully in Knoydart. 10 pitches of thin ice at about V,6. The Prism was worn all day long still loving it! (Gillet added for insulation in the wind)

Sunshine on Moonlight

Second day with Alan, Ronald and Richard today. I was keen to get them doing the work on a '1 axe' Grade II and had thought of Ledge Route. The news that 2 of them had already soloed it made me think again. I'd often looked up at Moonlight Gully but never done it so we headed that way. The snow at the base of the Gully was brick hard again after last night's freeze and the first pitch was icey, rocky, turfy and snowy. Rich cruised it with one walking axe and then put in a fine second pitch over the mixed steepening at the base of a narrow slot. Ronald's turn across the neve at the top of Moonlight Gully Buttress and then a second pitch up the fine upper Gully. Finally Alan took over for another grade 1 pitch followed by a slight steepening to bring us out on the flat shoulder at the top of the gully and overlooking No.5 Gully.
Time was getting on so I belayed the team as they rapidly downclimbed to the point where they could traverse back to the Coire na Ciste path. Then it was a sweaty fast walkout to be back at the car in time to meet Scott's team.

 Another sunny walk in

 Still ice around

 Rich cruising the first pitch

' Nae bother'

The step on pitch 2

 Ronald's turn

 This way!

 The upper gully

 Another belay

Bomber neve

 Ice

Topping out onto the shoulder

The Curtain is dead but Vanishing, Boomers, Compression Cracks all look good. Garadh is still banked out and Glover's first pitch looks fat. There were plenty of people still in evidence climbing routes above Observatory Gully and Comb and Green were climbed again today and the other gullies up in Coire na Ciste should also be good. A little milder for the weekend- watch out for falling ice- but high on the Ben there should be plenty still to do. Just watch the freezing levels on MWIS, Met Office and of course the SAIS Forecast.