Today I went up Ben Nevis with Rich and Will. They had raised £1300 for charity so both were very determined to get up as high as possible. We managed to get upto 1100m before they decided they could go on no more, so I agreed and we headed down. It was a pretty nice day, eventually clouding over, wasnt too bad spending 10 hours on the path. Loads of avalanche debris which was really cool, the guys were also interested in learning about avalances after all the media coverage they had seen. We saw a few flattened trees, dead sheep, huge crown walls and hundreds of tons of debris all over the path (good thing they didnt slide on a busy weekend!).

Today after having car problems I had a late start a went up onto the Ballachulish Horseshoe. I went up the West ridge of Sgorr Bhan which had some nice little steps, probably went at about grade 1. Several other teams on the ridge doing mountaineering courses, after passing these, I didn't see anyone as I walked over to Sgorr Dhearg (1024m) and then onto Sgorr Dhonull (1001m). I headed down into Gleann a Chaolais. Stunning day on the tops. Saw some fresh hoar crystals forming a new layer!!

There was a little bit..! Al and I went for a early start to look at some ice that Al had seen from a photo. Turned out it wasnt very fat, so we didnt get a climb in. Heavy bags and deep snow meant we had a good workout and it was a good drive for me. Al slept most on the way! Check out here for a full report.

I was out again shadowing Andy on a 2 day mountaineering course. We spent most of the morning covering navigation as this is what all the group wanted to do. We did this up above Ballachulish. In the afternoon we headed to the Quarry and covered a lot of rope work, securing on steep ground, movement tactics, abseiling and placing protection.

Yesterday I took a day off and Thursday I was assisting Kenny with 5 clients. As the weather was terrible, we spent the day in the Ice Factor rock and ice climbing, dry tooling and showing the guys rope work techniques and rescue procedures.

Today I was shadowing Andy Spink as he was running a mountaineering course for 3 people. We looked at snow anchors, avalanche conditions, emergency shelters, weather, using the rope for protection. We were on the edge of Callert Hill in some good snow patches, winds looked strong on the tops but we were relatively sheltered and in the the sun.

Today was the last day for the London Met Police Mountaineering Club. Finally they experienced some real Scottish weather! 70 mph gusts, driving snow and very cold winds. The last 3 days we had red faces from sunburn, today it was red faces from a blasting! The aim of the day was for the group to put their skills into practice and take more of a leading role. The group navigated the whole day with me giving input where needed. The poor visibility meant the group really needed to be switched on with the nav, which they were. We walked from Callert Cottages on the North side of Loch Leven up to the summit of the Corbett, Mam na Gualainn (796m) then over to Beinn na Caillich (764m) and headed down to pick up the West Highland Way. A great 4 days with a great bunch of guy's and girls.

Today was navigation day for the London Police Mountaineering Club. We headed into the Mamores to develop their map and compass skills. We headed from Mamore Lodge up into Coire na Ba, up onto the SE ridge of Stob Coire a Chairn, then to the summit, followed the SW ridge down to the col and descended into Coire a Bhodaich. A very warm sunny day again. We also met 70+ Royal Marines coming over into Kinlochleven from Glen Nevis. Busy day in the Mamores.

Day 2 for the London Police, we headed up to Aonach Mor today to give the team a bit of a rest by getting the gondola up. We headed round to the Nid area for some Ice axe arrest practice, avalanche awarenes and movement up steep gound. We headed up to the top of the ski lifts and pressed on to the summit of Aonach Mor looking at pacing across the plateau. Tomorrow (day 3) is our navigation day. Again the weather was excellent, climbers on Left twin, Forgotten twin and others, some skiers and boarders out aswell.