Intro to Scottish Winter Climbing Course

I have one space available on a four day Intro to Scottish Winter Climbing Course, running from 27th February to 1st March.  The course will be run at a ratio of 1:2, with the other client being a pretty experienced rock climber who has limited experience of winter climbing.  The course is currently to be based out of Aviemore, though this can be flexible if conditions dictate otherwise.  Cost for instruction is £300 per client.  Further details on my Scottish Winter Skills, Winter Mountaineering and Winter Climbing Courses can be found here.

Home but still Skiing

It’s not exactly the Austrian Tyrol but there’s something very satisfying about being able to ski on your home hills. I had a quick blast up Cader Idris this morning putting my skis on at about three quarters of the way up Mynydd Moel before gliding across the plateau to Pen y Gader. As regards the climbing conditions I didn’t see any ice forming but as the photo of the summit ‘ski lodge’ shows the rock has rimmed up well.

Breaking Free

The hordes on the other side of the valley mustn't have known what they were missing. Colonel Phil and myself had liberated ourselves from the shackles of groomed piste and ski lift. Skinning up through forest and open hillside a narrow ridge lead to the summit of the Stuckkogel (1888m). The magnificent vista being all the better for being earned by a thousand metres of climb. With skins removed we shot down through the deep snow before making the short re-ascent to the Hochetzkogel (1738m). The link back to our starting point at Oberaurach provided a bit of a sting with the crossing of the steep and thickly wooded ravine that runs from between the two peaks. I knew the ground was getting steep when I found myself pulling on the upper branches of trees for support. Thankfully the sweat and tears were short lived and the glide down through the snow covered alpine pastures brought an end to a fantastic finale to our weeks skiing.



Blue Skies above the Piste

The last couple have days have seen bright sunshine and we've continued to dive off the piste onto every entertaining run we spot. That great powder is now a bit chopped up and crusty but skiing it must be improving my skills. We've also spent some time searching for buried rucksacks with avalanche probes and transceivers. It's not hard to recognise the benefit of wearing a transceiver when you compare the detection times of either method. Tomorrow is our last day and could perhaps be the highlight of the week. We're donning skins and heading away from the ski area.

Powder and Mist

I guess I just didn’t realise what I was missing. Several years worth of cross country racing thinking that alpine skiers were all a bunch of big sissies and only now have I discovered the point of it; powder! The dark clouds might have meant we haven’t been able to see a lot on the mountain over the last couple of days but that wouldn’t appear to be the primary sense that’s required to ski this deep soft snow. Set your balance right, stay relaxed and let the buried skis rail around the turns. Not that I don’t find it hard, any lapse into laziness has sent me cart wheeling away into a drift. We’ve been quite committed in hunting the powder, never far from the ski area but seeking the lines between the runs and cutting corners through the trees whenever we could. As well as blasting down the slopes we had to don skins and be shown a little bit of climbing up. Much more familiar stuff for me but hopefully this’ll build to getting us into some wilder places later in the week.

Skiing in Austria

Just through being in the right place at the right time I was offered a place on a ski trip to Austria. Given the current lack of winter in Wales it wasn't much a decision to say yes. I've not skied properly for years, aside from a couple of forays around the Dyfi Forest last winter, so here's a chance to pick up some instruction and refine my home taught technique a little. For our first day on the mountains above Kitzbuhel we stayed largely on the piste slowly easing ourselves into things and trying to rid our bodies of the aches gained over a marathon 28 hours in a minibus. The plan is to move towards some touring later in the week which is what I'm really looking forward to.

UK Mountain First Aid Course

So there I was in the pitch black forest struggling  to hang onto the screaming Indian with one hand whilst with the other trying to stem the blood flowing from around the arrow sticking out of her back. Nearby an unconscious and bloody body lay awkwardly slumped over an earth bank, a cowboy perhaps? Two more casualties were hidden somewhere in the darkness, the flashing beams of head torches and hurried shouts of rescuers told of how complex a situation this was. I like to think that I’ll never have the misfortune to come across anything quite like this for real but having been put through a number of these challenging scenarios over the last couple of days has hugely increased my confidence in being able to cope with the unexpected. In the UK all those who lead people professionally in the mountains are required to maintain their competency in First Aid by under taking formal training and assessment every few years. For a while now I’ve gone to CRT Medical based in Mid-Wales to achieve this and I can’t praise the quality of their UK Mountain First Aid Course enough. There are so many great aspects to it. Firstly the excellent instruction, which is delivered by Russ the hugely knowledgeable Chief Instructor with the perfect balance of science, real world practicalities and humour.  Then there’s the level of enthusiasm and imagination that they apply to the numerous practical sessions. As well as the afore mentioned Indian, the guys had set up a full paraglide wing strung up in the trees and as a finale they have a ‘crash’ car which after mowing down a group of walkers ends up crashed in a ditch. All that said though the best thing about the two days staying in the centre they use near Staylittle was the food. Karen seems to run around tirelessly managing all of the behind the scenes activity no small part of which is the cooking. Three cooked meals a day with at least two cake breaks between meals, I’ll be well on my way to first aid certificate renewal before I’m hungry again.

Bog, Blood and Brilliant Barmouth Grit

Bold would be another 'B' I'd add to the title of this post if I hadn't already overused that particular letter. Bold shouldn't be the overriding description of the day but Dan's confident approach is certainly what got us underway at the fantastic gritstone crag of Upper Craig y Merched today. The Meirionnydd climbing guidebook is a great piece of work, but it's always worth bearing in mind that until publication many of the routes listed probably hadn't received a second ascent, some I'm sure still haven't. It's also prudent to consider that sixteen years after their inception the lines mightn't still have the in-situ peg or tape runners mentioned in the text. With this in mind and with the additional factor that until the sun swung round onto this remote south west facing crag it was flippin freezing (a couple of rare frosts by the way) I quietly suggested that an abseil inspection mightn't be considered too underhand. Dan's clearly made of stronger moral fibre however and wasted little time in starting up Stockholm Express (HVS,5a). Holding the ropes I watched on in no little awe as Dan coolly crept his way up this steep and sustained line. I say holding the ropes but that's not strictly true, the first piece of gear was at nigh on half height. The point came when I figured that spotting had become a bit useless and concentrated on moving the sharper rocks from the landing instead. Following the line only served to increase my respect for Dan's efforts and raised the level of apprehension I was feeling about it being my turn next. Tieing onto the front of the rope usually sharpens things a little and in only a few moves along the rising fault line of Burnt Umber (HVS,5b) I was starting the feel a whole lot better about things. The crux pull over the terminating roof cost me a bit of skin but was certainly a fair trade for that quality of climbing. Attuned to the rock with the sun on our backs Dan put up another steady ascent on Chandrapur (HVS,5b) and all I had to do was enjoy the moves as I followed.

Glorious (If that's what you're after)

There's been a unfamiliar glowing orb hanging in the sky for much of the day. Added to that the wind that seems to have been blowing relentlessly for around a month has dropped to a mild breeze. The weekend weather looks good too, good for rock climbing and walking and all those other non-winter activities. Let's celebrate what we've got though.

This Seasons Scottish Winter Skills, Winter Mountaineering and Winter Climbing Courses.

Winter seems a fragile thing throughout the whole of the British Isles at present but keep the faith and I'm sure things'll pick up soon. If that sounds like over optimistic sales speak then I'm afraid to say that it is. I've just posted details on my website of some Scottish Winter Skills, Winter Mountaineering and Winter Climbing Courses that I'm looking to run later in the season. They are all five day courses and in keeping flexible can be run in whichever location is best at the time. Dates are 7th-11th Feb, 27th Feb-2nd Mar and 19th-23rd Mar. In line with my usual tailor made approach the later two dates are still very much open in terms of content, they could become just what anyone fancies. The course running 7th-11th Feb is confirmed as being Winter Climbing in any of its wondrous forms at around grade iii/iv. There's currently a space left on this going at the bargain rate of £375. Oh, and don't worry about a lack of good snow and ice, we'll have stella conditions by then!

Avoiding Trouble

Spent most of this week working away from the mountains which wasn't so much of a bind given the trend of continued stormy weather. Today wasn't so bad though on the slopes above Bwlch Oerddrws where I was working for Tyn y Berth on an ML Summer training course. The topic of the day was emergency rope work, the type of skills that you'd use to get your group out of trouble rather than anything that you'd deliberately look to use. My little team of Jamie, Jenny, Giles and Greg were quick to pick up the skills and spent plenty of time putting them into practice.

The Old Year Washes Away

As the pictures show the ending to 2011 was no better than the whole of the last month has been. My mates John and Clare have been in North Wales for a few days and not being bothered by a spot of rough weather we headed up onto Glyder Fach yesterday to climb the fabulous scramble of the Dolmen Ridge (3). John and Clare both have important and responsible jobs in the real world and so saw the day as a opportunity to practice some under used skills. This all suited me rather well as all I had to do was point the way and concentrate on keeping the water out. Not being a place to linger we didn't stay long on the summit but hurried back home to dry out and get on with the traditional New Year's Eve activities. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

An Easy Outing

After two days of being blown around in the mountains an easy outing was today's request so James and myself had an enjoyable amble around Cwm Idwal. This gave me plenty of opportunity to ramble on about the rich history of climbing in the cwm, a place that has certainly played it's part in the development of both rock and ice climbing on a national level. Stood by the llyn on a damp grey day I'm afraid it's hard to see further history in either discipline being written any time soon.

Wild Day on Snowdon

Heavy over night rain fell as snow over the highest peaks. Combined with the gale that's still blowing over the uplands it all added up to a pretty wild ascent of Snowdon for Andrew, Heather and myself. By coming up the Miners Track we kept sheltered from the worst of the westerlies and only had to expose ourselves for the final pull up from the finger stone. The roar of the wind grew louder as we neared the end of the zigzags and suitably attired we poked our heads over the ridge and made a dash for the summit. The thawing snow made for a slippery descent but I suppose this added to a memorable day out on the hill for my two companions.

Windy on Moel Siabod

I met a bloke on Moel Siabod today who told me 'I'm glad of this wind; keeps the rain away'. Whether my companions for the day, James and Andrew agreed I'm not so sure. They're in Snowdonia for a few days to learn to become more self-sufficient mountaineers and have had suitably testing conditions today. We ducked out of the worst of the gale by approaching beneath the Eastern flanks of the mountain. Once over the summit we got the full experience, the gusts setting their timing to hit every time you tried to step over or around the boulders. For Andrew this was his first mountain, there'll be more of the same tomorrow if the boys are up for it.

Nadolig Llawen

Well there's no white Christmas this year and the weather looks set to be rubbish for the next few days. That's no bad thing though, I can stay in and enjoy myself. Nadolig Llawen pawb!

Busy in Scotland as the Temperature Rises

I'm on my way back home now following five days work in Scotland. I reckon that we might have left at just the right time as the thaw has sent the snow line shooting up the hill with cascades of water coming back down. My little team of Hannah, Phil, Sam and Tom made the most of the good conditions while they lasted. In amongst learning about mountain hazards, avalanche awareness, winter navigation and the building of emergency shelters we climbed five Munros and spent a night out in the Grey Corries bothy. Having chosen do to this over the longest night of the year we thought we'd better while away a couple of hours of darkness on the hill. A great week of winter mountaineering but it looks like it's a warm Wales we're heading back to.

Spending the week on Scotland's West Coast

Based in Glencoe this week working on an Introduction to Winter Mountaineering Course. The weather threatened to spoil the fun this morning; clear blue skies! That's surely not winter mountaineering. By the time we arrived on the summit of Carn Mor Dearg on the way to Ben Nevis via CMD arete normal conditions had thankfully returned. Marvellous!