Month: February 2017

Winter Skills Courses

Its been a challenging week weather-wise for our first Winter Skills Courses of the Scottish Winter season. We’ve had a really fun and productive week, though there were a few days when everyone was wet though to their pants!

We started off with return clients Stuart and Peter for a couple of days in Glencoe. With the guys heading over from Northern Ireland to see us we were keen to get straight into it, building on what they learnt last year.. On our first day we headed to Buchaille Etive Mor, and despite a depleting snow line, we found good fun up in the Coire. A wet day to say the least and no views, but full credit to the guys for getting straight back into it! Day 2 saw us head up into Stob Coire Nan Lochan. Stuart and Peter put a big effort in to get to the summit, and despite no views yet again, vowed to return again for more next year! Cheers for a really fun weekend guys despite the grim weather!

Winter Skills Course in Glencoe., on Buchaille Etive Mor

It was then straight in to a 5 day Winter Skills Course with Ian and Jodie. With the luxury of 5 days we have the ability to really get into lots of coaching, making sure Courses participants leave with a whole host of new or enhanced skills, hopefully with the he ability to go in to the Winter Hills on their own.

We had a full day of Navigation practise in Glen Nevis. With both Ian and Jodie being trainee MLs, we were keen to push their bearings, pacing, timings and contour interpretation to the limits! Some mock ML Assessment legs and a bit of fauna and flora made for a really pleasant day.

Navigation practise in Glen Nevis

We got to Nevis Range ski area for the start of the second day, only to see the gondola closed as we arrived! They guys took it on the chin (me less so!) and we took the long walk up! The wind had come in earlier than predicted but we found a sheltered spot to practise moving on snow and using an ice axe to keep us safe. Having the Hill to ourselves other than a Mountain Hare and the SAIS forecaster was nice!

Winter Skills Course on Aonach Mor

With Jodie feeling under the weather it was just Ian and myself, aiming to summit his first Munro on his 30th birthday.. With some strong winds forecast but finally a some snow falling, we opted for Buchaille Etive Beag. With Ian running each legs Navigation he built on the skills we’d visited on Monday and on the descent we found some neve to get the crampons out and have a look at walking in them. Top views from the summit and a great birthday walk for Ian!

Ian using crampons for the first time on our winter Skills week in Glencoe

With the team back to full strength for day 4, and heavy overnight snow, we couldn’t resist a long day out in the hills. A traverse of Stob Coire Nan Lochan was the plan. The hills were beautiful and white, the winds light and the route perfect. A steeper and more exposed challenge for the guys to push themselves on, and some great navigation practise!

Bit of wading on day 4 of our Winter Skills week in Glencoe

With weary legs and a considerable avalanche hazard, we opted for the beautiful Pap of Glencoe for the last day of our Winter Skills Course with Ian and Jodie. Snow was low down and the weather kind, and a full day of testing Ian on his Navigation and winter mountain decision making ahead! With lots of talk in fauna and flora thrown in, we had a treat on the way up… The little fella below came scuttling over and sat with us whilst we ate our lunch!

The climbing got a bit technical for this fella on our Winter Skills Course this week!

A really fun week was had with Ian and Jodie. I was impressed by how much they pushed their physical and mental comfort zones. Loads was learnt and hopefully they’ll feel confidant to get out and get into the winter hills on their own!

Ian and Jodie on the summit of The Pap on the last day of our Winter Skills Course..

Scottish Winter Climbing – a short story

I had the absolute pleasure to show Joey around Scotland the other week and take her on her first forays Winter Climbing. She took to it like a duck to water, at least she appeared to on the outside anyway! Here’s a short strory she wrote on one of the days experiences…

“The West Face” By Joey Jones.

Snow stings my eyes. I squint and bow my helmet against the needling spindrift, examine hands hidden within gloves as if they held respite, not rope. Snowdrifts build over the landscape of my legs. A movement – I pay out rope. Air thickens in quick bursts from my mouth, forming shivering speech bubbles and silent white exclamations. Another movement – more rope. My back is fusing with the sub-zero rock, resistant and relentless. Rope, belay device, carabiner, me. Belay, clove hitch, carabiner, me. A line of sense and safety inches away up the cliff. How long since I moved? I hear a call, disconcertingly close and low, disorientating echoes bouncing off the steep mountain walls. My numb, cumbersome fingers fumble with a frozen screwgate. No dice. A familiar exchange of words, repeated automatically, and I stand, stamp the cold from my toes, hear the clatter of metal on metal as ice falls from my axes.

First moves, then. I appraise the route with new enthusiasm at the prospect of movement. Axe into frozen moss – will that hold? Here – thick, black ice – a satisfying chock, a bulls-eye in a frozen, splintered dartboard. Now a narrow rock edge, solid and hooked. I pull and step and kick and pull. Flex fingers after every move to ward off the cold, but it’s not enough. Agony rips through my frozen fingertips, tearing my breath into ragged banners that flutter in the cold air. Hot aches. The pain is exquisite and extraordinary. I clean the first gear – don’t drop it. The fabric of my gloves freezes to the metal nut on contact, pulling and tearing. Summer sunshine floods my mind with the memory of licking too-cold ice-lollies as a child.

Pause. Breathe. Pools of light turn the far-distant snowy valley basin into a luminescent playground for ptarmigan and mountain hare. Above, inhospitably dense mist obscures the route, snowy boulders looming ominous and unending, a dubious purgatory. My fingers throb. The rope tugs impatiently on my harness. Move. It is late already. A long day. My mind returns to the route. The crux is steep. Not much for my feet. A small voice whispers that I’m out of my depth.

The rock catches my eye and I am distracted. Vivid lichens, green and orange and white, gaudy and gorgeous, adorn the steel grey boulder, forming an incongruous paisley, peculiar and unexpected. The snow is starkly white in contrast, a deep shaft where an ice axe was recently thrust glowing a delicate, luminous blue. I inhale the wild air, filling my lungs and my soul. The moment of doubt passes – I am reassured, grounded and filled with certainty. A sense of being fills me intensely. I survey the rock, explore with my axe, solving the problem. Just another puzzle. This mountain, its jutting towers of indifferent rock with their creeping cover of slick, ridged ice and deep blooms of pillowy snow; this is my adventure playground, an all-natural obstacle course. I lose sight of the world below, sinking cloud engulfing me, in a different place altogether. The daylight hours are nearly spent; have been well-spent. Thwack – pull. Kick, push down. I move up, loose strands of hair aged prematurely by silver icicles, soaked beneath with three different kinds of sweat. A small triumph, I feel it show in the corners of my eyes and mouth. Savour hot Ribena. A shared laugh. Brief respite. Start again.

Joey on Aonach Mor

Winter Climbing

I’ve had a week Winter Climbing in Scotland with Joey, I’m staying up here but it was her first week Winter Climbing. The snow came right on cue, and we took the long drive from Pembrokeshire to Scotland conditions started to improve in the mountains. With a couple of weeks until we started work it was time to get the Hill legs back and have some fun!
Breaking the drive up with a stop in The Peak District for a quick climb on the Grit, and a night in Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival, made the normal long slog more enjoyable. The speaker at the film festival was Steph Davis, and the films were great, so Joey and I arrived in Glencoe full of psyche for the week ahead!

Wanting to stretch the legs after the long drive, our first full day we headed up the small but perfectly formed Pap of Glencoe, a hill I hold close to my heart as I climbed it with my parents over 16 years ago. With all its winter cloak on it was a pleasant ascent and Joey’s first time using an axe and crampons together…

With considerable avalanche danger but lighter winds, it made sense to do a ridge the next day, and what better in Glencoe than the Aonach Eagach. At 4km long, and fairly committing, the route was a great first challenge for Joey’s Scottish Mountaineering journey! She fared really well and moved fast over the complex terrain. A great day and an impressive performance for her first Winter route!

Joey’s first day winter climbing awaits, the Aonach Eagach..

After a day skiing at the Glencoe ski area in poor snow conditions, it was time for another day climbing. All the times I’d been to Scotland and I had never climbed the Buchaille. The route of the day was Curved Ridge. It didn’t disappoint and again Joey totally cruised all the Climbing on her second winter route. The views from the summit overlooking the Western Highlands as the sunset were sublime. Snow conditions down the Coire looked questionable and we’d seen lots of hard windslab on the way up that released easily, so we opted for the descent down the safer ridge.

getting to grips with winter climbing on Curved Ridge

After an active rest day walking and watching Eagles in Glen Nevis, another route was on the cards. Joey wanted her last full day to be an adventure and really push herself, so we decided on using the Nevis Range Gondola to get over to the West face of Aonach Mor. Conditions were tough going, and breaking trail through the deeper snow I was glad Joey was more than capable of sharing in the work! The visibility wasn’t brilliant, and having not been over this side of the hill before, we started off up a route that we thought was going to give grade 3 Climbing. At 500m in length it was to be a big day out if we were to make the last Gondola down, so speed was of the essence.. Conditions were hard work, with lots of soft deep snow and insecure climbing with poor protection – classic Scottish conditions for Joey’s third winter route! Trying to find the line of least resistance was tricky, and the hard but protectable crux of the climb, with awkward torques and hooking with the axes, was considerably harder than grade 3. All the same Joey made it look no effort at all and just as we were starting to feel the fatigue of the day, the summit was in sight and we could move together quicker. We still had to run down through the ski field to make the lift! We went looking for an adventure and definitely found it!

A testing day winter Climbing on the West Face of Aonach Mor

What a great start to our time in Scotland, and it was really inspiring to see Joey taking to winter climbing like a natural. She’ll be climbing harder than me in no time!