Today was a perfect for the outdoor and indoor combination. With a nice morning forecast, John, Johnny and I headed up into Glencoe to have a play around on some of the steep snow slopes within Coire nan Tulach. The aim of the day was to workshop our short roping skills and share ideas about ways of looking after people on steep snow. We played around with various techniques looking at the pro's and con's, discussed when each technique is best applied under different conditions. We looked at ascending and descending, snow anchors and stance management. By about 1pm the rain started coming in and the wind was picking up so we headed back down to the car and popped into the Ice Factor for a few hours of tooling. It was nice and sociable as Adam and Paddy were down with their clients too.

Today Kenny and I changed plans last minute and had a leisurly start up to Coire an Lochain on Aonach Mor. As Kenny is my mentor for the MIC scheme, he wanted to show me around the crag looking at different ways of getting into the crag, moving around the bottom and looking after folk on the routes. We climbed both Left Twin (III,4) and Molar Canal (III) which were both very nice routes. The ice was quite variable, most of the moist snowpack from the last few days had firmed up with the dropping temperatures, some was super soft and mushy but there were also some nice areas of good neve and water ice which would take an ice screw or two. Quite a few of the easy to mid grade routes were 'climbable' today, however with rising temperatures tonight and tomorrow it may well be a different story!

Pretty wet and mild up in Scotland today, freezing level was above the summits and the rain just kept on coming! Katy and I opted for a nice ridge where we could keep moving without any difficulties but kept some interest. I had wanted to do the East ridge of Beinn a' Chorainn after Al had mentioned it to me a while back. Good fun for a foul day like today. The snow pack was saturated all the way through to the ground, there were some signs of old ice around but everything was pretty mushy. A few small cornices were hanging over the eastern edges which were sagging and no doubt heavy with water, worth keeping away for those. On the Summit I sat back and relaxed in the white out as Katy took over and navigated us over to point 1044m, nicely avoiding the incut gully. From Point 1044, Katy led me north and then followed the NE ridge that descends to the Bealach a Bharnish. From here gentle slopes lead into Coire na h-Uamha where we were able to see where we were going again. Tomorrow looks colder so hopefully everything will firm up! Lots of trees down in the forest too!

Today was my final day with Stephen and Andy so we opted for a journey day where they could put together some of the skills they gathered over the last few days. We headed up over the Carn Mor Dearg arete which exposed us to some wild conditions. After getting in to the snow line it was pretty steady going up to Carn Mor Dearg, on arrival we donned our crampons and descended onto the ridge which is great fun. The wind was blowing quite hard which so goggles and face masks were essential. There was a good cover of snow on the ridge and we were above the freezing level all day, there was also lots of fresh snow being blown around the mountain. On the summit of Ben Nevis we hid in the shelter for 15 minutes recharging and wrapping up for the decent down which required a reasonable amount of navigation which Stephen helped out with. On our decent down the red burn, it was clear that it was warming up and all the snow was turning to slush. It looks to be a wet and windy day tomorrow. Have a good new year everyone.

Yesterday wasn't feeling very wintry, however today was a different story! Stephen, Andy and I headed into Glencoe and ascended the Zig-zags on Gearr Aonach. The snow line was about half way through the route but it was all slushy and wet so we were able to make a rapid ascent. It was a good option today as it remained pretty sheltered from the westerly winds, sleet and snow. It was Andy's first time out in the mountains so we wanted to give him a little variety in terms of something hands on but also give him the opportunity to pick up some important winter skills for the future. After walking along the top of Gearr Aonach we nipped into the corie and covered lots of winter skills which the guys were eager to learn. We looked at moving around with and without crampons, ice axe arresting, moving on rock and snow and plenty of digging into the snow pack to develop their knowledge of avalanche awareness. Several teams out today, Dorsal Arete had an ascent, a couple of walkers on the NE ridge of SCNL and I'm sure there was much more going on! Finished off the day with a good session in the bouldering wall.

Today I was out with Stephen, Kate and Dexter who were super keen for a day out in some pretty foul weather. The aim of the day was to brush up on Stephen and Kate's navigation whilst Dexter ran around in circles and got under our feet (yes, Dexter is a dog). As the forecast was for high winds and gusts up too 100mph we stayed low and headed up behind Fort William. From the view point we headed south east up on to point 287m revisiting the basics of navigation and developing strategies that will work in winter. Kate and Stephen have both done their fair share of navigating but have lapsed for a while and also not done much in winter. Despite it not feeling very wintery we covered plenty of ground, headed up towards Bidhein Bad na h-lolaire and back down to Glengour covering a variety of techniques which we can consolidate over the next few days. Well done to everyone for not getting blown over! A good day finished with a good session in the bouldering wall.

For today we were looking for a good grade 3 ridge leading to a summit. The weather forecast wasn't as good as yesterday but low winds and moderate avalanche forecasts gave us a few different options. After a recommendation from a friend we decided for the North East Ridge of Stob Ban. On leaving the Glen Nevis car park it was snowing heavily and this continued for most of the morning. The route began by crossing a snow slope into a NE facing gully. Whilst I was ascending I triggered a small slab avalanche but managed to move over to a rocky area quickly. At the belay we witnessed the leader of the team behind us set off a further slab avalanche on the higher section of the gully. We continued up the fantastic, alpine style ridge mostly pitching due to the massive amounts of soft snow. The route contained adequate protection and opportunities for consistent belays. The visibility cleared slightly at the top giving fantastic views over the Mamores and Glen Nevis.

Today Katy and I headed into Glencoe armed with sunglasses, an axe and crampons and hit Curved Ridge (III). I had thought (or hoped) that it had an ascent yesterday and put a nice tracks in, unfortunately there wasn't, so today required a lot of digging. Fortunately I remembered where most of the spikes were and some of the cracks. Katy was keen for leading too, so she got on the sharp end a couple of times which was great. Saved me doing all the digging! We didn't see anyone else on the route but saw some tracks on the summit. There was lots of avalanche debris around the bottom of the route but every part of the route was nice and solid. Going up behind Crowberry Tower was fine too. From the summit of Stob Dearg, we had a look at Coire na Tulaich but as there was quite a lot of soft snow at the top. So we headed down the ridge, which allowed Katy to practice some winter skills coaching and route finding for her forth coming Winter Mountain Leader Assessment. Great colours on the Aonach Eagach whilst we descended!