We’ve had a really mixed week of weather here, making for an at times challenging course, but on the whole fun Winter Skills in Scotland. Paul, Tom and Kieran had made the long drive north to spend the week getting to grips with the Scottish winter environment, learn how to use an ice axe and crampons, make sense of the snow conditions and develop their avalanche knowledge, navigation and rope-work.
Our first day was one of those rare Scottish days, with light winds, great visibility and almost feeling warm in the sun. Given the high pressure of the last few days we had some interesting stuff to look at in the snow-pack, with some depth hoar providing instabilities, but we looked at making sensible planning and route choice decisions to put ourselves in areas of safety. We had a grand day out on the Glecoe ski field hill, and a bonus to be able to use the chairlift to shorten our walk-in!
Winter Skills in Scotland
What a difference a day makes though, and the next day we were looking at 100mph winds and heavy rain, with the freezing level rising above the tops – not a day to be on the hill! We took advantage of the poor weather to stay low in the beautiful valley of Glen Nevis, and use the fantastic Polldubh crags to look at rope-work. Being indoor climbers, the guys learnt to create belays, how to abseil off a route in retreat, and some scrambling and mountaineering rope-work… Lots learnt and great enthusiasm from the guys despite the horrendous conditions – I think we’re all still drying out now!
Abseiling skills
For our next day the weather was looking better than forecast, but with plenty of snow falling overnight when the freezing levels dropped, we needed to make sensible decisions to avoid the large accumulations of snow on the leeward slopes. We opted for Am Bodach, the hill at the start of the famous Aonach Eagach ridge, but chose to follow the east ridge instead, giving us some good options for some navigation coaching, there was plenty of snow on the north and east facing slopes to be wary of – would have been great for a ski!
Winter skills scotland
Despite weary legs the guys were keen to get one last big day in before their long drive home, and wanted to put all their new skills into practise, and decided a traverse of Stob Coire Nan Lochan would give them that day, plus gave us scope to stay away from the loaded slopes after a surprising amount of snowfall overnight.
They did great on the steeper, more broken ground, and enjoyed the extra exposure on the final ridge to the summit. With a long decent down to the cars on tired legs, it was mostly the motivation of a pint at the Clachaig that kept them going!
As ever a really enjoyable week with really fun people, though with lots of sensible decisions tom make to keep the team safe – thanks for a great week guys and hopefully see you again!