The last few weeks...

The Winter season is in full swing now. Here are some pictures with captions of my work and play over the last few weeks:

A snowy trip on Ben Nevis for Abacus Mountain Guides

2 days with Mark looking at Winter Skills and navigation- deep snow on Buachaille Etive Beag on Day 1!

A trip up to Mullach nan Correan on Day 2....

And a visit to the white room!...

Abbing down to go climbing

Out with Ian and Al on Morwind (III,4) on Aonach Mor

Some stretchy moves!

Back on the Ben with Frank from the Netherlands

The Observatory still poking through

A bit of a wild day with Danny in Glencoe...

Looking at Winter navigation in testing conditions...

A slightly nicer day on Stob Ban for day 2!

A fun in the sun day out with friends on the Zig Zags on Gearr Aonach

Jamie out with students fro Sheffield Hallam Uni MC on the N Ridge of Stob Ban

Some down climbing in wet conditions!

3 days with returning client David- Day 1 was wild and wet in Glencoe!

Pushing the comfort zone on the North Ridge of Stob Ban...

Summit in the bag!

Battling the weather again on the North Face of the Ben!

Some dry and calm weather with Dorian and Bjorn for the Highland Mountain Company

Stunning conditions with Graham on Stob Dubh for some Winter Skills

Back in Glencoe with Julie, working with students from West Highland College

This is more like it.. :)

Julie Baum MIC, coaching some Winter Mountaineering

Great day with a great bunch!

Some ice axe arrest with Lee and Chris on a Ben Nevis Winter Weekend

The chaps tooled up and ready to tackle Ben Nevis!

Superb weather on the Ben!

The obligatory summit selfie!

A speedy ascent in more great weather with Rhiannon from Canada

A rare sight!

A snowy Green Gully...

Today, Dave and I took advantage of day off and the good weather and headed up Green Gully (IV) on the Ben. We arrived at the CIC hut, there was quite a bit more fresh snow than we expected. The avalanche forecast made us choose our approach carefully, especially after the fresh snow. This meant a bit of a wade for us up to the start of the route as all the previous trails had been buried.
The first steepening was good fun with first time placements but not  enough ice to place more than a single screw. The easier sections between the steep parts were more akin to swimming than climbing but we made progress without too much difficulty. The final steepening was fairly thin and after seeing Dave make a good few holes which were through to the rock underneath, I think a lot of traffic will hack it out quite quickly. No cornice to speak of and a easy walk down No. 4 gully finished the day.

Wading up to the route

Hunting for a belay at P1

Some ice!

Into the sun

We saw teams on Cutlass, SW Ridge and Jacknife on the Douglas Boulder, as well as teams on Thomson's Route, North Gully and Tower Ridge.  Be prepared for a wade to routes that don't already have good trails broken!

Thomson's Route

Today Dave B and I headed onto the Ben expecting some pretty wet weather (according to one of the forecasts). We were pleasantly surprised when things turned out to be dry and still. Our plan A was Thomson's Route (IV,4) on No.3 Gully Buttress, a route neither of us had done before.
There was some signs of wind slab starting to accumulate on the approach but in the good visibility, we were able to pick a line to avoid it.
The climb was in reasonable condition and whilst there wasn't a lot of ice present, what was there was good resulting in first time placements for most of the route.
We descended No.3 Gully which was nice and scoured at the top although there looked like a team backing off of No.4 Gully which may have had a bigger cornice.

There were a few teams out today but the mountain was reasonably quiet for a Sunday. There were teams on Ledge Route, No. 3 Gully Buttress, SW Ridge Douglas Boulder possibly a team on Lost the Place, and some teams heading into Observatory Gully area.