Winter skills and Mamores Guiding

On Thursday I was working for the West Highland College with the First Year Degree Students. Our plan was to cover some basic Winter skills and also to let the students look at how we structure our sessions and adapt things depending on the conditions.
Straight away we were met with some challenges as we struggled to get the bus up the Forestry track to the Allt a Mhullin due to all the snow!

We looked at various aspects of avalanche awareness both during the walk in and on the hill. After covering the use of crampons and with lots of spindrift and strong gusts, we found a good bank of snow to dig some emergency shelters.
A great effort from the team who managed to get a productive day despite some challenging conditions!

On Friday I was guiding Laura and Rosie. We had a few options but due to the high avalanche forecast we thought sticking to ridge lines would be safest. We headed up the fantastic North Ridge of Stob Ban. Whilst never too technical, this gives a real sense of a mountaineering adventure and under so much snow, was great fun!
We headed round the West end of the Mamores Ridge along to Mullach nan Correan. The wind started to pick up as we arrived at the summit and so a steady descent saw us back in Glen Nevis. A thoroughly enjoyable day at work! Thanks to Andy who came along to shadow also.

Back in the office

Yesterday and today Max and I were working for West Highland College with the First Year ATM Degree students. The purpose of the day was to go over some navigation and basic hill skills.
Yesterday we headed out amongst the hills just above Kinlochleven. Due to the high winds forecast we stayed fairly low and managed to avoid get blown around too much. The students did really well, demonstrating some good skills- the outdoor instructors of the future!

Back in the office :)

Hard at work!

 Today we headed up to Glen Roy for a similar day. I hadn't been to the East side of the Glen before but it was fantastic for getting off the track and finding some really good features to test the navigation. Well done again to the students today, some more good performances!

Enjoying a well deserved food stop!

Almost back at the bus!

A bit of fresh snow on the Mamores visible but a fair bit of rain and warmer temperatures today.