WINTER SKILLS, CARN MOR DEARG

Mark & Brett, north face of The Ben behind

Some early blue skies and sun

Nice hard snow

Great views

Wonderful plumes of snow blowing down the east slopes of Carn Beag Dearg, plenty fragile cornices about

Cramponng down in late sunshine

This weekend I am joined by Brett & Mark from the Isle of Man who are on a two day course. Today it was a winter skills day on the south west slopes of Carn Mor Dearg. It was much lighter winds, freezing level down to 600m and we even had some early morning sunshine. There was a lot of fresh snow lower down the hill which made it harder going until around 900m when we found some good stretches of hard, wind scoured slopes. Here we went through some step cutting and cramponing techniques. There was a blustery, cold wind  with plenty of spin drift. We had the place to ourselves , great views over to the north face of Ben Nevis where there was many teams out climbing. WE reached Carn Dearg Beag summit then it was a great walk off down the west ridge on some harder snow. Ben Nevis tomorrow.