Ben Nevis Winter Weekend

Yesterday David and I started the first day of his Ben Nevis Winter weekend. We headed up to Aonach Mor to make the most of the excellent snow conditions. In this brilliant Winter 'classroom', we covered step kicking, step cutting, ice axe arrest and cramponing. We also had a go digging some emergency shelters  which was rather hard going in some hard snow/ice!).

 Today it was time to put the skills to the test on the Ben. Some murky weather as we headed up but we also managed to get some great views of the blue sky just above our head. A great effort from David saw us up and down in just over 7 hours. Some very hard neve just at the top of the zig zags certainly tested the crampon skills. It felt pretty warm on the summit today with some water dripping from the ice on shelter.
Dave B was also out for us today with Virginia who also put in a sterling performance on the mountain.
Overall a great couple of days and thanks to David for being superb company on the hill.

Dave B and Virginia a little bit ahead of us

David 'enjoying' the Zig Zags!

Success at the summit!