BEN LAWERS IN SUN SHINE

Back to the old stomping ground today, Ben Lawers area with Louisa and Simon. They were wanting some familiarisation/navigation training on the Ben lawers range for the annual Kindrochit Challange Quadrathlon in July. This involves a 1km swim in Loch Tay, climbing the Munros of Meall Greigh, meall Garbh, An Stuc, Ben Lawers, Beinn Ghlas, Meall Corranaich and Meall nan Tarmachan then back down to Loch Tay and a 7 mile canoe then rounding off wih a cycle of a mere 34 miles round the loch. The record so far is around 9 hours! Today I took them from Lawers village to Lochan Nan Cat then An Stuc -Tarmachan section. It was a beautiful day, the sun shone all day from dawn to dusk and only a gentle breeze, very warm, t-shirt style all day. The snow has largely dissappeared off most of the hills but Ben lawers still has a good covering above 1100m, especially on the east face.

CARN DEARG MHADANOCH, EAST RIDGE

George and I had a quiet day on the east ridge of carn Dearg Mheadanoch today. It was a little drizzly early on but cloud lifted and it deried up by the afternoon. It went very warm by late afternoon. This is a cracking grade II winter arete which leads from the Allt daim up onto the Carn Mor Dearg ridge. Unfrequented and full of interest. The snow was quite soft in places but still a cracking route.

CMD ARETE & BEN NEVIS

After the storm, comes beautiful winter days, of course! The last two days of warm, wet and windy weather didn't make much impact on snow here in the Highlands. After cooler overnight tempweratures the snowpack was hard and brilliant for cramponing along the Carn Mor Dearg arete and onto Ben Nevis. The rain surprisingly hadn't collapsed the beautiful sculptured arete alomg the ridge. The sun came out late morning just in time for some nice pics, then there was a few snow showers early afternoon. The hills are definately still wintery and with some nice dry and sunny days ahead it'll be lovely and Alpine like once more, brilliant. It's not over till the fat snowman sings!

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

A lovely day today with some excellent sunny spells in the afternoon. Overnight there had been further snowfall down to 300m but the lower slopes were quickly warmed up and the fresh snow had melted in the afternoon. Lucy, Peter, Bruce, Akmrad, Keith and I had a lovely walk up to Steall Falls, with the obligortory play on the wire bridge, then going up to the cracking wee hill of Meall Cumhann. At a lowely 698m and surrounded by much bigger hills, this characterful hill is rarely visited. The views are superb from the top. Unfortunately the winter wonderland will be washed away over the next couple of days. Heavy rain and strong SW winds are forecast for Monday & Tuesday.

BROODY, MOODY, GLOOMY BEN

What a difference a day makes, after yesterday's wonderful sparkling weather we were back to low cloud, poor visability and a few snow showers in the morning. My group today had their first winter hillwalk experience on Ben Nevis. All did well with a time of 8 hours. A better day tomorrow hopfully then a bit wet and windy Monday.

T-SHIRTS, SNOW, SUNGLASSES AND SEXY MOUNTAINS

The fantastic weather of blue skies and no wind which we have enjoyed most of the winter was back again today. Except it was warm today and one of those wonderful days of sunbathing in the snow and sun on the way up the mountains. Nicky and Dave were with me today for their first winter day out in The Highlands and what a day. We wnt up onto Aonach Beag from Glen Nevis, going over the Southern tops of the mountain enroute to the summit. Windslab in places but our route not a problem, mainly on ridges and wind scoured slopes. Views fantastic, wonn't describe them as they're all in the pics!

ANOTHER MONTH OF WINTER?

A new month and we are still very much in winter conditions on the mountains in Scotland. The last couple of days it has been snowing off and on with high winds. Here in the west we haven't seen the amounts of snowfall that the Cairngorms received. I took a wander up Sgurr a' Mhaim in The Mamores today, it was a lovely day with good spells of sunshine, light winds and just the odd light snow shower. The NW slopes were well wind blown and scoured and all the old snowpack is frozen solid which gave excellent cramponing to the summit. Next few days look good, Friday especially good with plenty sun and lght winds, care with route choice as avalanche forecast is high on certain aspects and certain areas. Look before you walk!

SUMMIT GULLY & WEST BUTRESS-STOB COIRE NAM BEITH

Fantastic weather and snow conditions returned back today. Overnight low temperatures had frozen the snow pack after the recent high temps. George and I went down to Glencoe and climbed Summit Gully (I/II) on Stob Coire nam Beith, well that was the guidebook grade until we came to a large cave/chockstone looking a bit blank and steep. We then decided on having an adventure and crossed over to the West Buttress on the right of the gully and found some II/III ground, great snow condtions through out, everything solid. The weather was fantastic with clear skies most of the day, some high cloud late afternoon. From the summit we went up to Bidean then Stob Coire an Lochain, saw no one all day on the hills. Quite a fair amount of fresh snow on the ridges and cornices have grown a bit since last week. Winter is certainly not over yet with forecast of at least a couple of very snowy days to come on Tues & Weds. Keep them axes and crampons at the ready and be safe out there-high avalnche forecast no doubt over the next few days.