QUICKIE ON HELVELLYN

It was a fabulous afternoon up on Helvellyn today. The clouds had lifted and some lovely afternoon sun. Another lazy start for a quick up and down from the Thirlmere side. Some good steep crags to play on for the ascent to the summit. Cornices on Eastern and Northern aspects and with some consolidation it should be good climbing fun in the gullies. Views down to Striding and Swiral edges loking beautiful.

Now back up in the Highlands of Scotland and things looking good for another superb winter, snow and lots of it down to low levels.

SNOW HOLING AND CLIMBING IN THE LAKES

The winds had eased a tad today and I was out in the beautiful and less frequented Matterdale Valley near Ullswater. Excellent full on winter conditions again, even managed a snow shelter in the big drifts and found some wonderful ice to play on on Angletarn Pikes which are at a lowly 600m, just goes to show that we're in for another cracking winter if you get these conditions in The Lakes. Back up to the Highlands on Friday and Winter skills courses are booking up steadily.

LAKELAND OR HIGHLAND?

Its excellent winter conditions, even here in the Lake District. With gale force winds today on Grisedale Pike and constant graupal showers through the afternoon I abandon the classic round of the Coledale Horseshoe after the summit of Grisedale Pike and celebrated my Birthday in the delights of Keswick instead!

HEAVY SNOW

There was a big dump of snow today on the Perthshire hills, we had continuous snowfall much of the day, heavy at times and the mountains were transformed to a beautiful full winter mantle. The snow was down at all levels and the road up to the Ben Lawers Visitor centre was looking a bit dodgy to travel on. Bruce and Anthony were on their second day of a winter skills course, we covered a lot of navigation, avalanche awareness & avoidence aswell as some more ice axe techniques including step cutting. We headed up an unconventional way onto Ben Ghlas, avoiding the 'tourists routes'. Well done to them for coping in the quite severe conditions although the forecast high winds were in fact only 30mph at 900m. Looks like a good deal more snow to come over the coming days, avalanche catagories are up to 4 in most areas, take care out there.

WINTER SKILLS

Good winter conditions today for Anthony & Bruce who are on a weekend winter skills course for 2 days. We headed over to the Eastern crags of Meall nan Tarmachan from the Lochan nan Larig dam. Great variety of conditions, frozen old snow, windslab and frzen turf. We covered ice axe arresting, avalanche awareness and walking on steeper terrain. We had snow showers later in the day which merged into steady snowfall. It was a bit windy on the tops and forecast is for it to be pretty wild on Sunday with lots more snow to come in the next week, great stuff. I am working for www.walkaboutscotland.com this weekend.

JACOBS LADDER

We were away over in the Cairngorms today and it was another cold, clear morning. Temperature was at minus 3 degrees at Coire Cas carpark with a moderate wind. George and I and Nick and Bill were climbing on Jacobs Ladder, a wonerful gully in Sneachda. Conditions were superb, hard snow all the way and a steeper exit onto the plateau. We finished with a wonder round the coire rim with the winds picking up slightly and high wind chill.

EAST FACE TARMACHAN

It was a beautiful clear skies morning today and only light winds. Fresh overnight snow down to 800m, and a frosty night ment wonderful conditions in the Tarmachan gullies on the eastern side again. John and I wet up the obvious main right-left slanting gully. Of course no one had been there and so virgin snow and neve all the way.

COLDER & SNOWING

After a very wet,windy and mild weekend it was back to colder conditions on the hill with constant snow showers above 800m. Most ice has dissappeared but with the overnight cold temps the snow od snow was starting to re- freeze. I found a nice ribbon of snow just to the West of Meall nan Tarmachan's normal rout up, at about 900m. The wee scoop was quite well consolidated, again this line is usually here trhough most of the winter although has it's South facing it does tend to be soft later in the season. My usual route up direct from my home in Morenish was rather wet underfoot today with the constant rain that fell yesterday. Forecast looks good for the rest of the week, remaining cold and more snow forecast. I still have some dates free in January for winter skills.

EAST CORRIE,TARMACHAN

Another excellent day in the gullies. I was in the eastern corrie of Tarmachan, one of my favourite local winter areas and very accessible. Only half an hour walk up from the Lochan nan Lairig dam, or cycle up to the dam if you feel a purist. The corrie has several easy grade 1 gullies, today I had a liesurley 11am start and went for the most northerly one which leads onto the NE ridge, a great way to the summit of Tarmachan. Wonderful conditions once more at 800m with frozen turf,water ice and neve. There was a lot of snow getting blown around on the tops and down the gullies but I was sheltered from the 40mph Westerlies until gaining the ridge. There is windslab forming on East to North aspects but a big change in the weather from tomorrow with milder and very wet and gales, but cold enough for snow on higher ground.

CREAG LOIGSTE

It was another great day of snow and ice in the gullies. I was in the Creag Loigste area on Ben Lawers where there are several excellent wee gullies, all grade 1 or 2. There is extensive water ice above 800m and the gullies are all well filled in with excellent hard snow from about 900m. The big broad gully to the south of the big main crag was looking good and this one usually lasts right through the winter, even with major thaws. I opted for the next one SW of this, great mix of water ice, hard snow and frozen turf. These two gullies are about 30-40 degrees. Tops of the gullies all have some windslab which was still unstable as above 1000m it's still below freezing. There was a nice 30mph Westerly wind on the tops after being sheltered in the gully and visibility was down to a couple of meteres, lots of rime ice on the exposed rocks high up. It was good to get 'proper Scottish winter conditions' after all the 'Alpine' weather we've had since before Christmas. Tomorrow looks a dry day again before a major weather change at the weekend, with gale force SW, but staying cool on the tops which should bring some welcome new snow.

TARMACHAN CLIFFS

The weatherman was spot on today, we had low cloud down to glen level all the way up to 1000m. Above it was clear and made for spectacular light and cloud formations in the temperature inversion. Mark and I were playing about on the cliffs of Cam Chreag where there is an excellent mix of ice, frozen ground,fresh snow and pockets of windslab in places. The freezing level had risen today from glen level to about 800m and it was quite mild on the way up but still well below freezing on the summits and a windchill on the Northerly breeze. Next two days look good weather for being out and about.