Lochaber Guides: Getting stuck in...

It's been a busy start to the Summer season so far. I had a great day on Ben Nevis with Tina and Simon. They have both done a fair bit of hiking and trekking abroad, mainly in Japan and so were keen to see what Scotland had to offer. A pretty pleasant day all in all and we even managed a bit of cramponing descending the Red Burn.

The next day I was working for Abacus Mountaineering guiding Tony and Kim on the Ben. The guys got a proper Ben Nevis experience with some wind, rain and cloud thrown in!

I've also started the process of consolidating what I covered during my MIA training and Andy and I went for a trip up the North Buttress of Stob Ban and descended the North Ridge. Really good route for some short roping practice.

We also had a great trip to Ardnamurchan and climbed a few routes up to E1 5b.

Back up the Ben on Saturday with a group from Action Challenge, with lowering freezing levels and a frosty night we were slightly concerned about how firm the snow would be. Thankfully the morning sun helped to thaw the top layer of snow by the time we got to the snow line and on descent things were soft and pleasant underfoot.

On Sunday I was working for Dave at the Highland Mountain Company on the CMD arete. Unfortunately two of the chaps in the group made the tough call to head down on our way up to Carn Mor Dearg. Whilst not an easy decision, when taking into account the length of the day, it was the best one. I accompanied the guys back down and then headed back up the Mountain Track to meet the rest of the team as the ascended the final slog up to Ben Nevis from the arete.

On Tuesday Kev and Andy were kind enough to be my guinea pigs for some more short roping practice. We settled on Curved Ridge on the Buachaille as our route for the day and despite

the odd shower, the weather was pretty kind to us. Lots more good practice for me and thanks to Andy and Kev for being patient 'clients'!