Scottish Winter Mountaineering Course - 9th March

Course report: Andy Ravenhill
Course: Scottish Winter Mountaineering

A wild and woolly week-end of two half’s. Rory and Will had a good week-end I think I expect their legs will be a bit stiff after yesterday on the Ben.

Saturday

We enjoyed appalling weather with heavy driving rain and strong winds and big thaw. The rivers and hills were awash with water. So we started the day with a session in the ice factor. Both were keen to try it out and we had a good session climbing looking at belaying for Will who had not done much before then placed some ice screws and constructed ice threads. Then we ventured outside into the weather and climbed the Zig Zags on Gear Aonach in Glencoe. A nice easy scramble / swim to practice some rope work on the way up and some abseil safety on the way down. It was very wet!

Sunday

A much better day, cooling down with some breaks in the cloud I decided to go up the Ben to get as much time on the snow as possible. We walked into Coire na Ciste and did some self arrest and looked briefly at some snow belays and had a good roll about in the snow. We then climbed up the mushy snow with some new snow on top ascending No4 Gully. The cornice at the top was quiet challenging in a soft snowy sort of way.

Will had a few problems getting over it and shredded his over trousers with his crampons in the process. The plateau was partially whiteout and Rory did a good job navigating across the plateau to the summit pacing it out in very poor vis. The weather continued to improve and even cleared for a bit on the way down.

Rory should be a good addition to your staff both in the shop and outside. He was pleasant and technically good over the weekend. Will was a keen novice and got a full on week-end. He is very keen to progress and has ambitions on Elbrus later in the year. He need to sort his gear out as it was a bit basic, but I think he found that out this week-end.

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