Winter Conditions Blog Category

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Low Water Beck

Perfect Conditions for Izzi’s first ice climb.

Low water is in great condition as you can see from the video.

The snow is not very consolidated, towards the end of the day it had warmed up and began to ball up on our crampons.

Hopefully a cold night tonight will make it better to climb on.

When we descended into the valley there was a considerable amount of snow fall compared to higher up the hill.

It seamed that it was too cold to snow on the high tops.

The East has had more snow for longer compared to the west.

Lakes Winter Conditions

Now that I am back from a weekend on the Grit (perfect friction), an AMI Trainers meeting in N Wales and the ERCA conference ill be on the hill catching up.

Conditions are looking perfect into the future.

I here the Ice is forming well and and many routes are being climbed.

I am out tomorrow with one of my regular clients. As soon as I am back in the office ill up date you all ready for those who can get out on the weekend.

This weekend I’ll be climbing with Paul from London, Paul runs a business called Hearn and Sons and has been learning ropes this year and making great progress.

If anyone is keen to learn the art of winter climbing and making the right judgments we can equip you with the knowledge .

Drop me a line or have a look at some of the courses on the site.

Shelters Removed

The shelters located on Carn Dearg (Ref: NN 158 718) and in Coire Leis (Ref: NN 174 714) have been removed.
Read more…

Its cold outside….

The fire is lit as winter has arrived in the Lakes. Snow down to 300m at the weekend, high winds and a little chilly. I have a feeling its going to be another great winter.  Skis at the ready!  It might also be time to start thinking about winter skills courses too.

Winter Conditions

Happiness is a Good Piece of Ice

All old blog posts coming soon

See the old Blog site here

SAIS Report Service Feedback Survey – Please help

This is information and a request from SAIS.

Our aim is to continually develop the avalanche information service for all mountaineers, climbers walkers and skiers that enjoy the Scottish mountains and hills during the winter season. We have produced this survey in order to obtain your views and user information.

We aim to provide a service that gives the best possible mountain and snowpack information to mountain users, enabling them to enjoy the Scottish winter mountain environment with greater knowledge and awareness of the avalanche hazard. Your feedback is important in helping us achieve this.

Please use the link/address  below to access the survey thankyou.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SAISsurvey

Weekend Road Trip

Each year Robin and Jenny come to Scotland for a weekends play in the cold stuff.

This year we stayed in Torlundy, Robin and I headed to the ice and Jenny Skied on the Saturday, Sunday we all headed to Glencoe then home after a meal in the Drovers Inn on the way home.

[wpvideo ymXWiv6w]

Ice Climbing – The Ben

With a high Avalanche risk today and Glen Coe out for climbing in we headed to a safe location for a great little piece of ice to teach John and Sarah how to climb ice, they had given it a go inside in a large fridge but wanted to see what it was like on the real thing.

Just past the dear fence and close to the path back to the CIC hut from the top of The Ben there is a great little icefall that can be climbed at grade 2 – 3 depending on the line you take.

A great day was had and the views and feeling the mountain gave was inspiring.

[wpvideo Dk04xShW]

Winter Hill Walking and Skills – Mam na Gualainn

This weekend is a winter skills course for the civil service walking group. We are staying at Kinlochleven with 18 in the team and 5 instructors.
Today I was out with the hill walking team. With the avalanche condition as they are we made a choice to stay lower and out of the main risks.
After a quick shuttle in the morning we headed up Mam na Gualainn.
There was a really thick layer of haw frost with a significant layer of wind slab on top, however the patches of slab where isolated and it was possible to avoide most dangers.
Tomorrow I am with two climbers.

Lakes Winter Skills Day – Red Srees

A very humbling experience… John, what a star (you will see what I mean when you see the video clip).

We headed up Kirkstone Pass and onto Red Srees, only just made it to the top. The griter had cleared it by the end of the day.

Skills included -

• weather report interpretation, route planning and avalanche awareness
• foot work and step cutting
• crampons skills on rock and snow
• self arrest
• emergency shelters
• winter navigation
• practical test on the snow pack
• ice skills
• simple rope work for mountaineering

On the way down we spotted a short icefall and had a little climb then back to the pub for a well earn t pint.

Today was John’s first time in crampons, first time using an ice axe and first ever ice climb.

Be inspired…

[wpvideo YP3TQKUu]

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