Wet Wet West!

I spent the last week working on an introduction to snow and ice climbing course with Olly and Mark, despite being a pretty horrible week weather wise we managed to get a lot done and had a really good week.
Day 1 of the course was spent in the ice factor, this is a fantastic poor weather option, we spent a few hours on the indoor ice wall looking at movement skills on ice, and placing ice screws. The rest of the day was spent looking at rope work, this gave the guys a really good oportunity to consolidate their existing skills and also learn a few new things, putting them in a good postion for the rest of the week.
Day 2 we decided to brave the elements, the theme for the week was freezing levels above the summits with lots of wind and rain, tuesday was no different! we headed up into Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe and got onto dorsal arete, things were thawing very fast, there was enough snow to climb the route but things were very wet, and we topped out in the rain!! We quickly walked over to broad gully and did a couple of lowers down it to escape the worst of the weather, we arrived back at the bus a tad on the damp side!

Mark and Olly at a rather damp belay on dorsal arete.

Day 3 the weather was even worse than the previous day, with heavier rain forecast and stronger winds. We chose to start the day looking at rope work in the hotel that the guys were staying in, looking at how to make multi-pitch change overs slick, and how to bail of a mutli-pitch route, along with a few other things. After lunch in the comfort of the hotel we headed for Glen nevis to put some of the skills learnt that morning into practice on the crags, this meant we didnt have to go to far from the bus, and we were able to find shelter amongst the trees.

Olly abseiling back down the crag

Day 4 was giving a much drier forecast in the east, so we headed for the cairngorms. The thaw had hit things pretty badly over there, but we only need a gully to climb with the focus being on stance management and rope work skills so we decided to head over and see what we could get done. I was shocked as the corrie came into view, the snow had dramatically receeded, and very few things were complete. We headed up to jacobs ladder as it looked like the best of a bad bunch! We climbed the route in four pitches, with Mark and Olly building their own belays and looking after each other, we topped out into pretty strong wind, which blew me clean of my feet at one stage, i was glad to get back down to the corrie floor! Despite the dry forecast we had drizzle and showers for most of the day, never the less we still managed to have a pretty productive day.

Looking up into t-sneachda, where has winter gone??

The 1st belay on Jacobs ladder

Day 5, the final push!! Today was the day we had been waiting for all week, the freezing level was forecast to drop down to 600m, and there was to be little rain, it was looking good! We headed for the Ben and made our way up into the ciste, with the rest of the masses. The forecast was bang on, with fantastic neve, giving amazing climbing conditions. We headed for number 3 gully buttress, as no one else seemed to be moving in that direction, meaning we had the route completely to ourselves. The route was in great condition, a fantastic route to finish the week off, with a combination of steep neve and mixed steeps. We topped out just as the cloud was starting to lift, meaning we had some great views for the descent down the red burn. We spent a bit of time looking at snow anchors up on top, then headed back for the carpark. I was so glad the the weather had came good for the final day, it had been a pretty rough week for the guys weather wise and it was amazing to be able to finish the week of with a great route in good condition, result!!

Mark approaching the 3rd belay through some rocky steeps.