Tunnel Vision

Tariq

Today was my first day of the season climbing on the East face of Aonach Mor. I was with Fred and Tariq, on the Snow and Ice, Jagged Globe course. We found Easy Gully in great condition, and the Gully rim was solid. Walking across the bases of the climbs we could easily see the tops of the climbs and saw that many climbs had safe cornice exits (possibly from heavy weekend traffic?). Scott just was just ahead of me at Tunnel Vision, and we both had a great time on the route. The ice was good and the neve was better. This is a great little 1 star climb. Lots of routes were being done today, including Morwind, Left Twin and White Shark.

Fred topping out at the end of Tunnel Vision

The best part of the climb was topping out, pulling over the edge into the sunshine - every day in Lochaber is like this!

Tariq finding some firm neve

Tariq topping out in the sun

Looking over at the sun and Ben Nevis

A spectacular day - they're all like this!

I did have sunglasses in my bag but, I was in the shade for most of the day - in search for the sun again tomorrow..

Tower Scoop

Today (Tuesday) I was working for Jagged Globe alongside Ed Chard on their Snow and Ice Climbing Course. We went to take a look at the Ben. When we got to the CIC hut, the wind was much stronger than we had expected and the gusts were quite powerful. We could see quite a lot of snow moving about and building in some areas. We decided to go into Observatory Gully, with a view to doing Tower Scoop (III**). We found the snow to be patched with windslab, but as we gained height the patches coalesced, but with careful route choice a safe route was possible close to the Scoop. The snow here was a tricky again, so we pitched up to the rock, and enjoyed 2 pitches on the Scoop. Topping out the neve was solid. The wind at this point was regularly gusting, and the snow into Tower Gully looked dubious so we decided to go down Observatory Gully instead. This was only a short ice climb but a great day out.

The video is poor quality but gives an idea that the ice is building. Point 5 looks terrific..

A quick look around Observatory Gully on the way to Tower Scoop from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Twisting Gully

South Buttress, Central Buttress and North Buttress of Stob Coire Nan Lochan

This week I'm working for Jagged Globe on their 'Snow and Ice climbing course' - alongside Ed Chard.

Today I was with Fred and Tariq. who aren't new to snow and ice, so we thought we would kick the week off with a look in Stob Coire Nan Lochan, with a view perhaps to do Ordinary Route on Central Buttress, but I thought I saw people on it, so we went for Twisting Gully (III,4****) instead. Ed was in NC Gully with Adrian and Jim. There was a team on Intruder who had a good day, and there was a team on Central Grooves. I also saw Scott out with his team heading for the Summit Buttress.

Fred and Tariq in Twisting Gully

Twisting Gully was in great shape and had seen a lot of action at the weekend. The crux was fairly straight forward with solid neve about.

Fred gaining the ledge on the left wall

The neve was terrific on the entire hill. Even the cornice was safe today and easy.

Tariq on the same move moments later

There was a fair amount of wind today (enough to make sure the Nevis Range Gondola didn't run - causing a great deal of extra walking up and down for some teams today), and there was some transportation taking place.

Fred abseiling in Broad Gully

After a great climb, we had a mini abseil session in a secure Broad Gully. Just before this I had seen Louise Beetlestone lead the fine arete of Dorsal Arete (how many more times will she be up there in her outdoor career!)

Thank you to Fred and Tariq for great company, and I look forward to tomorrow.

Avalanche Awareness With SAIS

Today Mark Diggins ran an excellent SAIS Professional Development training day for AMI and BMG members. This was a joint event for Jagged Globe and West Coast Mountain Guides. We learnt about all the latest developments with SAIS. SAIS have 5 areas for which they produce avalanche reports. There is a section on the website to study recorded avalanche activity. There are 5 observers blogs to read (eg Lochaber). You can get the forecasts on your mobile, or get daily updates via the new SMS message service, follow them on Twitter or find them on Facebook.

We looked at the latest developments in producing the avalanche reports, teaching avalanche awareness and decision making.

As usual on a Mark Diggins/SAIS training day, I learnt a great deal, and will adopt lots of these developments into my avalanche awareness teaching in the nest 2 months.

The short video shows Mark conducting a burp test,

SAIS CPD Training day with Mark Diggins from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Thank you to Jagged Globe and West Coast Mountain Guides. Thank you to Nevis Range for the use of their facilities.

Ledge Route

The start of Tower Ridge

My last day with Dave, we wanted to finish with something on the Ben, either a guided route, or something for Dave to lead, or partly lead himself. We found a great deal more fresh powder snow than I expected. When in Observatory Gully we found that Zero Gully had recently avalanched, and Point Five was showing powder release as well (with a party climbing on it at the time). There were lots of teams heading up onto Tower Ridge, Indicator Wall and Smith's Route areas but, with lots of powder releases on several slope aspects, I didn't think it wise to follow any of these teams. There were several teams heading out of Observatory Gully area for a different plan. We had a quick think, and once we observed avalanche debris high in Coire Na Ciste below Number 3 Gully, we decided to move onto plan E - Ledge Route (II****) - for Dave to lead half of the route. The route was great, and we shared it with several other parties.

Dave navigating off the Ben

Dave wanted to use the last part of the day to practice his navigation - and the clouds obliged this by coming and going with perfect timing. Unfortunately Dave has to get back to work on Monday, but that gives a few more days to play in the snow...

Hopefully nobody was caught out with all the snow movements today.

Buachaille Etive Beag

Dave

Today, again working for myself , Dave and I went out on day 3 of his 4 day course. Today was day 2 of his winter skills refresher. We headed out to Buachaille Etive Beag for opportunities to look at nav, ropework, snow evaluation and decision making.

We only saw 1 other person, but saw lots of evidence of a winter skills course from yesterday. We had a great day, got to the summit of Stob Dubh, got through everything I wanted to cover and even finished the day with some quality sliding. On a separate note - it was a 4 glove day - my first this winter season!

Winter Skills

I also met Ken and Scott on Aonach an Nid today

Today I was again out with David Barber on day 2 of his 4 day course. We headed for the Gondola, Aonach an Nid and Aonach Mor to take a look at refreshing his winter skills. There were a few groups out here on the hill today - so not quite all on our own. We met Scott, Ken and a team who had climbed up the West Face.

David battling with a cornice

We did a little ropework and had fun with some tricky cornices - Dave was keen to get involved and get some cornice action. This was part way up the ridge at around 1050m. We were later navigating around the plateau, and Easy Gully had a great deal of fresh unstable cornice build up.

Nearly over

The temp did rise quickly in the morning as predicted, followed by rain, and by the end on the day the snow was soft and there was melting evident everywhere, even at the summit.

South-West Ridge

Dave with a view down into West Gully

This week I'm on a 4 day course with Dave Barber. Dave works down at Woodlands OEC in South Wales. He was happy to start his week with a quick climb, so we headed up to the Douglas Boulder to see what would be free. We found a team on Fawlty Towers and Alan Halewood on 1934 Route, so we headed for the South-West Ridge (III**) of the Douglas Boulder. Then Ash turned up to take his team up the West Gully and down the East.

Ash down in West Gully leading his team up, as Dave hooks his way up the pitch.

Trident Buttresses

Creag Coire Na Ciste

There were quite a few teams out today on the Ben. Teams on Ledge Route, teams walking up left of the Comb, and a team heading up Slingsby's Chimney, and did I see a team on Hadrian's Wall Direct early in the morning?

Dave high on the ridge

Dave close to the top

Dave and I had a quick look into Observatory Gully, but all we could see was a team of 4 heading for Slingsby's Chimney. We headed down with smiles and started to hatch a plan for tomorrow.

Douglas Traverse

Ben Nevis Castle Area

Today was the last day of the Jagged Globe Winter Mountaineering course for Wendy, Dan and Tom. I was working with Tony Halliwell. We decided to head for the Ben. The Ben track was covered in snow causing difficulty for everybody. Only one car made it to the top car park. Again the team wanted to look at winter leading, so they could have their own adventures after the course. We chose the Douglas Gap West Gully and Traverse (I*). Kenny Grant and Ben Wallace both led ropes up Fawlty Towers today.

Ben Nevis looks a little more wintery now

Wendy on the left. Tony Halliwell and Tom on the right in West Gully (I*)

We had West Gully to ourselves. There was some fresh snow, but the old neve was still there to make progress easy.

Wendy in Douglas Gap

There were some accumulations of snow in the East Gully, but not enough to cause concern, and it was only patchy. A quick abseil took us down to the neve lower down. From here we could see the bottom of Point 5 Gully and a team of 3 retreating from it's base.

A quick abseil down East Gully

The start on Point 5 on the right hand side. Just after this photo was taken I spotted a team on 3 retreating from the base of Point 5.

So finished a terrific week for the team. They had great fun in the 'Scottish weather', and enjoyed all the climbing. Hopefully they're eager to come back for more...

Dorsal Arete

Wendy on Dorsal Arete (II***)

Today was day 4 of Jagged Globe's Winter Mountaineering Course. The teams at Jagged Globe mixed up this morning, and I was teamed up with Wendy. Both teams headed for Dorsal Arete, to learn about leading, belay construction, and stance management.


High on Dorsal Arete, the weather still seemed to be holding out for us. We shared the route today with Jamie Bankhead from The Ice Factor.

Dorsal Arete with Jagged Globe from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Going down - Broad Gully

By the time it was time to go down, Broad Gully was still a safe descent. Some pockets of slab and loose snow had been building, but lots of the old hard neve was still visible.

South and Central Buttresses. Can you spot the 4/5 climbers. There is a team (Adam, Guy and John) high on Unicorn, and to the left on Inclination at the top of the Chimney? (Is this Matt and Ben?)

Everybody had an excellent day, and the weather wasn't as bad as expected.

North Gully

First pitch of North Gully (II**)

This week I'm working for Jagged Globe. Check out their blog here. I'm working on a winter mountaineering course. I started today, but this is day 3 of their course. Tony Halliwell is directing the course. I was teamed up with Rob and Dan. We headed to the Ben with a few plans, but when we got there we decided upon North Gully, and Tony's team went for Moonlight Gully (II*).

Rob and Dan

There is a little new snow, with a few accumulations in places, but this could easily be spotted and avoided. The neve is again rock hard, and lots of ice still exists. North Gully was in great condition.

Rob in red, Dan in Green

The cornice is large and the exit is very steep - lots of people have tackled it with ice screws

I got to the cornice and tried the direct cornice exit. There are lots of screw holes, where the escape is a 2-3m vertical wall. I didn't fancy it, so went for the 30m R traverse to where the cornice stops.

I went for the traverse to the RHS where the cornice stops

Topping out

Number 4 gully is in easy condition

We quickly nipped down number 4 gully, and so ended a great day. As we were leaving the weather seemed to be on the turn, the winds seemed to be picking up, and more snow was on it's way down.... How will it look by the end of tomorrow? Tony had a great time on Moonlight Gully and came down Number 5 Gully.

Smith's Route

Smith's Route (V,5****) in the centre of the photo

I met Andy Stotesbury for another day on the Ben, and we went off to check out Smith's Route. The mountain was much quieter than the busy weekend. We saw several teams on Tower Ridge, Tower Scoop, Gardyloo Gully, another team on Smith's after us (sorry for the ice on your heads!), Green Gully and White Line. We got to the climb, and the ice looked terrific, and the neve was solid all over the mountain. I was first up, and led up to the cave. There was almost a path of hooks on the way up. The ice was solid and thick - taking long screws. When I got to the cave - it was dry with no dripping - a day for the softshell!

The ice cave belay at the end of the first pitch.

Andy on the first pitch

Andy arriving at the belay

Andy starting off on the second pitch out of the cave - The Icicle Variation

Andy set off on the second pitch and again there were some brilliant hero hooks. The icicle on the left was solid, and again took long screws. I had time in the cave to watch 2 teams making good progress up Tower Ridge and a team top out on Tower Scoop. Eventually I had to leave the cave and do some climbing - which turned out to be a brilliant pitch.

A team topped out on Tower Ridge

As I topped out I met Scott Kirkhope who was working.

Rock hard neve everywhere

Andy off to the summit

On our way down to Number 4 gully

Glover's Chimney across to Green Gully, Cascade in the middle

We came down Number 4 gully, which is a very easy angle at the moment, and saw climbers on White Line and Green Gully.

Panorama of Ben Nevis summit after Smith's Route from Max Hunter on Vimeo.