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| Jim demonstrating the self belay |
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| Heading up The Nid with plenty of snow |
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| Classic head first axe arrest |
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| Good to practice the 'log roll' axe arrest |
Jim from Brisbane, Australia is out with me for the next four days on a winter skills course. We started off gently and took the gondola on the Nevis Range ski area to give us maximum time in the snow. We never saw any skiers, walkers or climbers at the bottom and didn't see a soul on the hill all day! Very unusual. The actual weather was much better than forecast, with moderate SW winds and only the odd bit of drizzle all day. It was quite mild but there is lots of snow on the Nid area on Aonach Mor which is where we headed today. We covered basic movement on snow with the axe and went through crampon techniques, even though there was not much in the way of hard snow and no ice. Toward the end of the day we did some ice axe arresting and a glissade back down the hill. Unfortunately the gondola had stopped running due to high winds (or lack of people?) when we got back so we had to walk back down to the carpark. Forecast is for much colder temperatures from Thursday onwards so it should freeze up the snowpack nicely.
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