Scottish Winter Mountaineering Course. March '16

Course: Scottish Winter Mountaineering Course
Leader: Andy Ravenhill

Monday: usual first day roll about in the snow with some winter belays and rope work on Buchaille Etive Beag. Weather was fairly full on with new snow and 30mph winds no pictures of this day. We summited in a blizzard and beat a hasty retreat back to the van. A good shake down day.

Tuesday: after a big thaw and rain over night we went to Beinn a Chaorainn not expecting much. But being a bit further east it turned out to be a reasonable day. Covering some navigation on the way in and some moving together rope work on the east ridge. Very thawy but not too wet.

Wednesday: winter returned with a vengeance today. The weather was good in the morning but snow was forecast and it chucked it down from mid morening in a blustery wind. We climbed Dorsal Arete Gr2 on stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe in epic spindrift and had a great day. Discovered the value of a pair of goggles today!

Thursday: came up trumps today. A blue sky day for the Ben. Heaps of new snow meant hard going and we were the only ones on Ledge Route in deep snow we could have done with a snowplough attachment to our boots as shin deep was a good step. But it was worth it for a superb finish to the week, I think the lads were tired after this one I certainly was.

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