MELTDOWN

Well it had to happen, Atlantic fronts finally brought in moist, warm air and rain today with some morning strong winds thrown in for good measure. Marije & John were with me today on their first day of a winter skills course. Despite the warm, wet conditions we soon got into plenty of snowy, winter terrain up in the  Aonach Beag area from Steall meadows. We covered  basic moveing around on snow useing boot & ice axe techniques, axe arresting and avalanche assessment. The snowpack is now well saturated with all the rain. It was sleating at around 800m, the rain and winds eased off by mid morning but the rain came on again in the afternoon. A very mild day with Southerly winds and Steal falls is now back to normal-water, lots of it.

BACK TO NORMALITY

Gone are the blue skies and for the last couple of days there has been cloud cover and temperatures in the glens have risen above freezing. Laurence and I went Glenfinnan way today and up Streap, a gem of a  peak in the West Highlands with several knobbly summits before reaching the wonderful final narrow ridge to the summit. At 901m it doesn't make Munro status, thankfully! We followed one of the many wee burns up from the Dubh Lighe glen to the ridge finding some ice here and there amongst the still unconsolidated snow. There was a strong SE wind today to spice up the final ridge walk. Stayed dry all day and cloud above the tops so nice views.

JUST ANOTHER BLUE SKY DAY AGAIN

Yet again we were blessed with blue skies here in The Highlands. There was a stiff NE breeze today blowing a lot of loose snow around. I went up the un-frequented North ridge of Meall a' Chaorainn which is a minor top of the Munro Mullach nan Coirean, the ridge and even lower slopes on here are now much easier walking with a lot of snow blown off.  From here it is wonderful ridge walking to Stob Ban with fantastic views all the way round. West was best again, Glencoe had some high cloud and the hills to the SW never had the sun we had today. Another cold day but very pleasent even with the winds to add a bit of atmosphere. Looks like we may get some more snow by Tuesday, staying cold for some time yet.

THE EDGE OF WONDERLAND

Yet another fantastic clear skies day in The Highlands. With very low temperatures but virtually no breeze today so it felt very pleasent. A day for the Carn Mor Dearg Arete onto Ben Nevis, this was probably the finest weather and snow conditions I've had whilst traversing this wonderful Alpine like ridge in winter. Above 1000m the snow on the ridges is now excellent, most of the soft, wind-slabby snow has been blown off and the arete has superb hard snow. The final slopes from the abseil post is well scoured and haed snow too. Very quiet on the hill today with only  a couple of guys behind me today and just a small handful of folk on the summit. Days like these don't come often, grab 'em while you can!

GO WEST

A fantastic day in the West today, I took the train to Inverailort and went along the beautiful Rois-Bheinn Ridge which includes the summits of An Stac, Rois-Bheinn,Sgurr na Ba Glaise and Druim Fiaclach. Guaranteed to see no one, I never have done every time along here! Apart from the superb ridge the views out to Skye, Rum and the Small Isles are some of the best. Blue skies all along the West apart right out over the Western Isles. It was virtually crampons from the train station with water ice along the tracks and paths to the open hill. I thought the ridges may have been scoured from previous days winds, I was wrong! Still a lot of windslab to wade through, but with views like this you need some hardship! Missed the 4.30pm train by 10 mins so it was a 90min wait in the local hotel, spare a thought for some folk, the hotel has had no water for two weeks has the burn is frozen, had to settle for beer, hardships again.

CARN MOR DEARG

David and I went onto Carn Mor Dearg today. David had previously been up the Pony track on Ben Nevis, in Summer. So this was a complete contrast for him today, seeing The Ben's North face and in winter. After a clear start the cloud descended by early afternoon and the visability became poor near the summit with a very cold breeze on the tops. Temperatures were again below freezing at all levels although it was actually raining back down at the carpark. The tops are well scoured and excellent cramponing terrain now. The windslab has a braekable crust now, in places but still poorly bonded and needs a thaw/freeze.

AWAY FROM IT ALL

Yet another benign, cold and lovely day in the West Highlands. Paddy and I headed over to the quiet hills around Sgurr Inse near the Grey Corries today. Paddy was brushing up on his navigation skills prior to his Winter ML assessment in March. We also covered some axe arresting and avalanche awareness again. Even at the low altitudes of 500m we found plenty of windslab especially on Westerly aspects. We were out numbered today by those monarchs of the hills, red deer which seemed to be in abundance around every corner. 

NEW YEAR, OLD TRICKS

Paddy, a return client, was out with me today on a two day Winter Mountain Leader refresher. Paddy is taking his Winter ML assessment in March. Today we covered movement on steep ground and setting up various belays. The only gear that can be used on the WML assessment are a rope, sling and Karibiner. We headed up to the area just to the North of Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis. It was another sub zero temperature day on the hill although the sea level temperatures did get a little above freezing, don't think I've chewed on so many rock hard chockie bars over the last three weeks. On the walk up to the crags there is quite obvious pockets of winslab around, would be nice to get some freeze/thaw conditions, during the day we also covered avalanche awareness & assessment. Lots of wonderful looking ice on the crags where we where . This is a lovely wee area, away from the crowds and not too far a walk in from The North Face carpark. Weather was great today, the clouds soon lifted by mid morning and clear skies, light winds by afternoon. Cold conditions still around for some time yet, the path up from the NF carpark through the tree plantation is fast becoming a good luge run.