It's been a superb end to the Winter season for me. I've been able to get out an enjoy some early Spring rock climbing with some students from West Highland College in preparation for my MIA assessment in a few weeks. Thanks to everyone who came along!
Back to some more normal weather and I had 2 days out with Ged. This was Ged's first step into the Winter mountain environment and we covered plenty core skills as well as bagging his first Munro, Stob Dubh in Glencoe! Ged's journey to get into the mountains from significant health challenges has been inspiring and it's always good to share someone's first steps into this amazing environment.
Next up was a snowholing trip with the 3rd year Adventure Tourism Management students at West Highland College. I haven't been snowholing for quite a while so it was good to refresh the skills and also be out with experienced instructors Scott and Julie. We headed to Carn Ban Mor from Glen Feshie, and whilst things felt like Spring in the Glen, there was more than ample snow for us all to dig in for the night! Well done all the students for creating some great snow holes and for keeping a good sense of humour throughout the trip!
I had a superb trip up Ben Nevis with Kate and her 8 friends with Hannah working with us too. A great effort from the team saw everyone reaching the summit which was fantastic.
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A busy summit selfie!
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Tim and Nick were up at the start of the month learning some Winter skills and getting some more mileage in the Winter mountains. We had lovely sunny weather on Aonach Mor and around the Nid Ridge followed by another sunny day up Sgurr an Lubhair (1001m) in the Mamores. It's really satisfying to see clients make lots of progress and look forward to seeing both of the chaps again in the mountains in the future!
Rounding up the last booking of proper Winter work, I headed out with Joe, Joel, Jacob and Angus for a Ben Nevis Winter Weekend trip. The weather was pretty challenging for our skills day and we saw large avalanche debris in Observatory gully. The chaps learned the 'waterproof' is a subjective term but it prepared us well for our second day out!
Thankfully, the weather was much kinder on day 2 and we had some smashing weather on Ben Nevis. A great team of guys to be out with!
This week, I was back out in the 'white room' with Jane and Josh on and ascent of Ben Nevis. Some very challenging navigation conditions reminded me that Spring is still a long way off of the summits. A superb performance from mother and son saw us up and down in around 6 hours, leaving plenty of time for a brew in the Ben Nevis Inn!
It's been another full on Winter, some challenging days and some stunning ones too. Thanks to all my clients, friends and colleagues for lots of memorable and fun days out!
