BMC Club Training Program

Enjoying some steep snow on the Nid Ridge

This weekend I'm working for Adele Pennington Mountaineering on the BMC Club Training Program. With a fast retreating snow pack we opted to use the Aonach Mor Gondala to reach the reliable snow fields around the Nid Ridge. The day was spent developing and perfecting many of the skills of a winter mountaineer focusing on footwork and movement skills or step, slash, stomp, slip, slide & stop (before splat!)

Friday night film - BMC International Meet

BMC INTERNATIONAL MEET 2012 from ReelTime Adventure on Vimeo.

Golden Oldie

Sue enjoying the security of her new axes!

This week I'm out climbing with regulars Sue & Jude. With some new sharp climbing axes to play with we headed up to the west face of Aonach Mor for the classic grade II Golden Oldie. However 2 pairs of crampons between 3 did increase the challenge somewhat! There were a couple of other teams enjoying the ridges which were holding a surprising amount of snow which made climbing pretty time consuming but we timed it well arriving back at the top station just in time for the last gondola.

Scott Kirkhope's team digging their way Western Rib (III)

Lots of deep snow to play with...

More wind on Morwind

Scottish Winter Courses

With the first significant snowfalls reported in Scotland we're gearing up for the winter season. I'll be out and about from the 2nd January to the end of March for winter skills, mountaineering, winter climbing and expedition training. Please have a look at www.mountain-zac.co.uk if you are interested in any instruction or guiding this winter. I'll also be keeping my usual blog updated with reports of conditions and recent ascents. Please enjoy the images from the last couple of incredible seasons and I'll see you on the hill.

Ski Touring on the Aonachs

Lonely on Aonach Mor

Ben Nevis from Aonach Mor

Today we went to a strangely deserted East face of Aonach Mor. The two Adventure Peaks teams had the whole crag to ourselves. Due to the foretasted high winds the Quad chair wasn't running meaning a slightly longer walk in but conditions were surprisingly benign as we arrived at the Ski Patrol hut. After quickly gearing up we descended Easy Gully by abseil which involved some novel rope work by the other team! There were plenty of large cornices but everything seemed pretty stable. We traversed below the crag to find the majority of the routes looking rather lean with none of the mixed routes in condition. The best options were Left Twin (III) taken by Rob's team and Siamese Twin (IV 4) which gave us a great little climb on good ice. We topped out by traversing left to the top of Morwind which doesn't have a cornice. After a quick bite to eat we dropped a rope down The Web (III) which also contained plenty of ice leading up to an impressive cornice which was outflanked to the right. Over on the Ben teams were reporting good chewy ice up high but with limited security from ice screws.

Abseiling in to Easy Gully

Sheila topping out on the first pitch of Siamese Twin (IV 4)

Patricia & Sheila on a comfortable stance

Mountaineering on Aonach An Nid

Tim trying out daggering on steep terrain

Mark enjoying the benefits of crampons

Excavating bucket seats to tackle the steep headwall above.

A solid bucket seat and buried axe belay for Tim

Aonach Mor

Aonach Mor Avalanche

Bucket seat and buried axe belay

This week I've been joined by regulars Jude & Sue for an introduction to winter mountaineering. With plenty of scrambling and walking experience behind them and big plans for the future we opted for a technical skills day up on Aonach Mor to give them a good foundation for the rest of the week. All the ice was buried under plenty of new snow so the crampons stayed in the rucksacks but we were able to look at kicking steps, ice axe arrest, bucket seats, ice axe belays, abseiling and emergency shelters.

The wind increased throughout the day leading to some significant loading on the slopes around the Nid. During a introduction to avalanche avoidance in a safe location a shovel tap test triggered a 40' by 20' slab avalanche around us which was a useful teaching aid if a little dramatic. The slab was around 3" deep and comprised of soft windslab which had been laid down in the last hour. At the time we were investigating a weak layer of grapnel approximately a foot down. There's a lot going on in the current snowpack. Further around the ridge there had been a significant cornice collapse with a big debris pile covering an area of approximately 100m by 60m with some blocks fridge size. With full on white out conditions developing we headed down early for a debrief over coffee and cake!

South African abseil off a snow bollard

Keeping control of the ropes as the weather comes in!

Perfect conditions to run away for a coffee!

Soggy day on Aonach Mor

Matt enjoying a steep step

The thaw is continuing on the west coast of Scotland but there's still plenty of snow to play with. This week I'm working on a mountaineering course for Adventure Peaks. For day one we headed up to Aonach Mor to introduce using ice axe and crampons. The area around the Nid Ridge gave us snow, ice and rock to look at footwork, step cutting, ice axe arrest and crampon technique. A good solid foundation on which to build for the rest of the week as we venture on to steeper terrain.
Down in the car park we met one team who'd made a quick ascent of Tower Ridge on the Ben but not much else to report with the current warm conditions.

Getting up close and personal with a cornice!

SAIS Avalanche Day

Mark demonstrating a tap test

Today was spent on Aonach Mor with Mark Diggins of the SAIS looking at recent developments in avalanche forecasting. This is part of Jagged Globe's ongoing program of instructor development. After a morning discussing the merits of a holistic approach to forecasting and putting a few myths to bed we headed round to the Nid to have a look at the current conditions. Despite a relatively benign snowpack we were able to identify an unstable layer of grapnel, probably laid down last Monday, at around 800m on a north easterly aspect although some force needed to be applied to get it to shear!
The SAIS have just rolled out a great new feature on their website which documents significant avalanche activity from the last 30 years totaling some 10,000 avalanches. To continue to develop this feature please report any notable avalanches on the SAIS reporting page.

Exploring the snowpack

David performing a burp test

Golden Oldie

Approaching the start of Golden Oldie on the W Face of Aonach Mor

Today was a chance for Rich and Allan to put their skills in to practice. We took the Aonach Mor Gondala up to 650m and headed round to the remote West Face. The classic route of the crag is a grade II called Golden Oldie which follows a prominent rocky spur to within a few meters of the summit. We had the same problem as yesterday with a good covering snow making for very time consuming climbing with protection hard to find. The steep start went in 2 pitches with both Rich & Allan taking a turn on the sharp end. We then moved together up the remainder of the route taking it in turns to lead and protect the group.

The weather was pretty good today with just a couple of heavy snow squalls blowing through. The north westerly wind had stripped the soft snow from the summit slopes but the rest of the route was still under a thick blanket with a few pockets of soft windslab. On the way down the popular East Face was very heavily corniced and it didn't look like anyone had been down Easy Gully. A crag to avoid in the current conditions. Today I was working for Adventure Peaks.

Rich enjoying the intricacies of pitch 1.

Plenty of snow making finding protection difficult.

Climbing in to a brief burst of sun.

Moving together on the easier upper section

Allan staying well clear of a large cornice

Morwind

Full Scottish conditions on Morwind!

Yesterday I was working for Alan Kimber. Richard was a total beginner but wanted to experience Scottish Winter Climbing and the weather didn't hold back. We decided to take the gondala up onto Aonach Mor and approach the East Face by was of the Nid traverse, giving us time and terrain to introduce the basic skills of using crampon and ice axe. As we approached the Climbers Col there was a break in the clouds giving us some stunning views of the monstrous cornices overhanging the climbs. With a strong westerly helping them to form and the freezing level hovering around 900m we weren't surprised to hear something give way and trigger an avalanche.

We opted to approach the climbs from above and had a good battle through the cornice above the Climbers Col straight into winds gusting up to 70 mph. We managed to locate the top of Morwind (III, 4) which rarely cornices and a few abseils got us to within 20m of the base of the route. The ice was pretty cruddy on the way out but with the belays already in place we made good time. We heard another cornice collapse over towards Tunnel Vision and through another break in the clouds there was plenty of debris below the crag including one big slide which had reached the lochan.

Aonach Mor cornices from the Climbers Col.

Topping out on Morwind.

A first foray in to Scottish Winter climbing!

The cornice above Tunnel Vision on the East face of Aonach Mor