Crampons not required

Today I went out with Dave. We knew it would be wet, we knew it would be soggy, we went out anyway just for the hell of it. Wanting a quick day we headed to Glencoe. We had talked about Curved Ridge but also the possibility of the thaw causing heavy wet avalanches out of the basin. As we came through Glencoe village we began to guess that that might be not as much of a problem as expected because already the snow cover was drastically reduced.
Curved Ridge was sopping wet, there is still snow on ledges and in gullies and hollows but the cover is much less than 24 hours ago. We didn't need crampons and barely needed an axe. In fact I only put gloves on to come down Coire na Tullaich (again the reduced snow cover meant it was easy to descend avoiding and hazard of we snow slides).
Despite pretty new waterproofs my pants were wet. In fact there weren't many patches that weren't wet. It was one of those days that would defeat ANY 'waterproof' combination.
Still we got our leg stretch in and were car to car in under 4 hours, glad to escape the ming.

 Dave embracing the ming

Me... wet...

 Dave remaining ever psyshed

 Into the grot

Dave still smiling

 Dave... i'm beginning to wonder if he has sado-masochistic tendencies?

Me... a bit more restrained

 Dave and guess what?

 Dave has a dry patch

 These gloves were in my pocket- I didn't even wear them and they are soaked!

Back in the Wall-CWA Training

Today was day 1 of a Climbing Wall award Training for West Highland College which we travelled to Glasgow Climbing Centre. Lots of personal climbing, some interesting warmups and a good chat on peer belaying. A long drive (cheers Dave) but a good day.

 Shuttles and lunges and core slaps

 Walk along the wall

 Pick up and put down

 Bell ringing

A little simon says

Magic day for mountaineering in Lochaber

I lured Carl into a day out today for a little leg exercise. Although we've both worked around Lochaber for many, many years neither of us had ever done the East Ridge of Carn Dearg Mheadhonach so today was the day. The walk in was steady, plenty of crusty snow and hidden boulder fields some ice slabs but non stop chat made the time fly by. The Ridge itself is a great line and with almost no wind and beautiful light the only thing to worry about was a little loose rock. Views to Schiehallion one way, the isle of Rum in another and across to the North Face when we topped out were all superlative but I was glad not to be wading in Observatory Gully or Coire na Ciste today. Lots of white in view but most of it is fluff!

The East Ridge of Carn Dearg Mheadhonach in sight

Carl breaking trail

Sastrugi

Gaining height

Great line

Taking the steeps as directly as we could

The classic shot

Last col

Last climb

First view of the North Face of Ben Nevis

Topping out

 A bite to eat

 Happy days!

Ploutering about on Ben Nevis

Defn: Plouter "To wade about messily; walk in a clumsy way"

After a nice night out with friends from the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (cheers for organising Ken) it was another day out looking at decision making with West Highland College Students on Ben Nevis today. The students had a Christmas Ceilidh last night so it was a much depleted group (of 2!) who turned out today. Youth of today- can't hack the pace!

A big change from yesterday as a great deal of snow had arrived!

Yesterday

Same spot today!

It was quite a wade/posthole/flounder/plowter into Coire na Ciste and we observed a number of natural avalanches down No.5 Gully. The crags are however looking whiter and some ice is forming in cracks and corners that wasn't there yesterday. Good to see Geoff who was stretching his recently repaired leg and making good decisions too (he headed down from the Hut!). The freezing level had gone up as we descended and there are probably some options for steep mixed tomorrow but there is a huge depth of snow in places.

 Hoofing it down

 Break time

 Carn Dearg

 Observatory Ridge

 Drifts were face deep!

 Ice forming

 Snow flowing

 

Attack! Attack!

 Run away! Run away (can you see the snow waterfall top right?)

A bit wild for a moment!

Heading down.

Decisions, decisions on Ben Nevis

Today I was out with 6 students from West Highland College's School of Adventure Studies courses. The focus on the day was improving their decision making in the winter mountain environment and after a planning session we walked in to Ben Nevis using the SAIS Be Avalanche Aware process as the basis for their decision making today. As well as the avalanche hazard we also looked at issues with loose rock, experience vs terrain and river crossing through the framework of: planning, the journey and key places. The group took the message on well and despite me throwing them a curve ball trying to persuade them to follow me blindly into NO.5 Gully they stepped out from under my expert halo and made it clear that they wanted to be part of the decision making process. Hopefully they'll be able to use the reflection on the experience in tandem with knowledge they are always gaining on their courses to make good decisions this season.
It wasn't especially cold today but there was fresh snow down to below 500m (and it was falling lower as we walked out). There are still old snow patches in the coires and major easy gullies and there was a great deal of snow being blown into those areas again today. Lots of graupel in evidence flowing like water over the crags and things are still wet certainly as high as the top of Moonlight Gully Buttress. I could see clearly that there was no rime at all today in Coire na Ciste and a pair of climbers had been up high in Observatory Gully reporting nothing there either. There is a very little wet ice forming as snow has been plastered to faces in places like Hadrians Wall but its a long way from climbable yet. Continued cooler temperatures might begin to freeze and rime things a little by the weekend but it will be interesting to see what the temperatures do after that.

Ben Nevis this morning

Lots of snow blowing

Coire na Ciste

Snow gathering behind micro features...

...but what does it mean when its on both sides?

Our third 'key place' today

 Balls

This was filling in calf deep footprints in an hour today

 Debris below No. 5 Gully, probably from yesterday

 Definitely winter!

It was also great to bump into Rog and Cath at the CIC Hut today. I last saw them when we did Curved Ridge and Ledge Route together in the winter 5 or 6 years ago! Rog kindly sent me this picture of us heading up today.

And finally a quick vid from today: