It's great to come back to the UK and be met by a weekend of sunshine, I had been really looking forward to getting involved in the hills again.  This weekend I have been working with Di Gilbert, Heather Morning and Ken Applegate with Aberdeen MRT.   We had two days to play with, beautiful weather and a list of topics the team wanted to cover in their training.  The first day was taken up with some full on nav in beautiful weather.  And yes I did want to be ice climbing on Ben Nevis, but it was nice to be wondering around some unfamiliar ground in the southern Cairngorms.  We saw 2 golden eagles, 2 Peregrine Falcons, Hare's, frog spawn, ravens and a buzzard.

The second day the groups broke down and Di and I took a team to the Pass of Ballater, a rock climbing crag to look at improvised rescue.  The day was more focused on personal climbing rather then big rescues which was great fun and I had to work hard to remember everything as Di and I still had our winter heads on.  Fortunately, our memories are good and we had a great day covering everything from tieing off a belay plate all the way through to rescuing a lead climber on a traverse.  Unfortunately no pics today but it was a stunning weekend.

Chadders doing what he does best....looking cool.

The trip started with a random meeting of Chadders in the airport, at 6am in the morning we didnt make much chat but we did agree we would Ski in the afternoon when we got to Chamonix.  After feeling a little more awake we grabed our kit and hit the Grand Montet, bumping into Andy Nelson, Mike Brownlow and Kenny Grant.  We had a great day hitting the off piste from the lifts and a perfect warm up for me.  

Ali and Kirby in a ping pong ball

From Cham, I hooked up with School friend Kirby and Ali for 3 days in the Ecrin.  Conditions started pretty wild but soon improved form white out and windy one day, clear but windy the second then calm and clear the third day.  Perfect!

Windy and Clear

Proper windy, no ridges today!

Clam and clear...climbing, ridges and steep descents on ski's.

Kirby leading up to the summit crest.

 From the Ecrin, we headed back to Chamonix and were based there for the rest of my trip.  From here I did several day tours seeking out some great snow, steep descents and some great summits.

Ali overcoming her fear of climbing

Ali in her element on skis

Touring with Andy, Mike and Brains

Abseil descent before skiing out

Touring from the Midi

Not much pow!

Glacier!

Another brilliant week out in Aurland this week working for Moran Mountain.  I was working on the final week of courses in Norway for MM and it was starting to feel that we were just in the nick of time.  Unfortunately there was no ice low down but we found fantastic ice higher up from the fjords.  I was climbing with Rose and Phil, both fantastic clients in their own right.  Both strong and keen and willing for anything steep and solid.  All week we never climbed under WI4 unless they were leading, we climbed some good pitches of WI5 and found the limit of their abilities and set them up well for doing some great leads on the final day.  We visited new crag everyday and as the rest day was to be very snowy, I decided to go skiing rather than climb an ice route.  Dave Kenyon and I skied at Voss resort with some fantastic snow....in very Scottish weather.  Glad to be back in Scotland.  I'm just down from |Nevis range where I have had a morning ski and now I'm packing for the Alps.  Back on the 13th.

The extent of our views

 Today was my final day with Sam, Katya and Aide and to finish the week we had full winter conditions.  It was snowing all day and very heavily so a ridge was a must and we quickly moved out of any gullies.  We climbed ledge route with Sam and Katya sharing all the leading and we ascended via some off the beaten tricky steps to add interest for the guys.  Up on the top was pretty much a white out so Sam, who is gathering days for him Winter Mountain Leader Award took the map and compass and did 3 brilliant navigation legs to get us into the Red Burn for our descent.  We didnt see much all day but it certainly was freezing so all the ice routes will be building nicely.   Teams climbed Vanishing Gully, Kenny climbed the Curtain, Mike climbed Tower Ridge, Simon bailed off Route 2...too much snow!  Looks like much more snow is on its way, too much for the mountain to hold so there will be avalanches in places. Check SAIS whilst you are planning at home.

Sam battling through the conditions

Team red on the summit

Sam leading us down in a white out

Im going to Norway now for a week so I will post when I am back.  I may update my work facebook page HERE whilst away.

Sam bringing up Katya and Aide

Katya leading the way

Like every other climber and mountaineering instructor in the area, I went to the Ice Factor yesterday as there was a serious melt down in the mountains.  Summit temps were well above freezing and it had been raining all day.  Blair told me people were skiing in Glencoe so fair play to them.

Katya loving her huge spike belay

Katya leading Sam hanging out..

Today Katya, Aide, Sam and I all headed back into Glencoe, dry after our Aonach Eagach traverse on Tuesday, we headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochain.  Sam and Katya were keen to be on the shape end so they took turns in leading Dorsal Arete with Katya getting the crux over the fins.  As usual there were several other teams on the route but everyone seemed to flow quite nicely.  A couple of teams avoided the Arete....so just did Dorsal (no cigar for them) but we were joined by about 5 or 6 other teams on the route.

Stand up...

Final belay, Aide on the Arete

The crags were looking great with teams in Twisting Gully, Ordinary Route and some of the easier gullies.  Super blowy on top so we headed straight down Broad Gully which had small accumulations of soft snow and wind slab.

Aide on the arete

An excellent day with freezing level around 700m.  The thaw will have done wonders to Ben Nevis ice, sure it will have stripped things back but I think it will be mega tomorrow and over the weekend!

Lots of folk coming down!

It started nice

 Today I had a super day with 3 regular clients Katya, Sam and Aide.  In the past we have done the Cuillin Ridge, An Teallach traverse plus several days in the NW so we started off with a big day in Glencoe.  The Aonach Eagach was high on Sam's list, Katya had an aborted attempt in the summer and Aide was up for anything.  With 70mph winds forecast we knew it would be a bit of a battle but it was great non the less.  On our ascent to Am Bodach, the weather was looking quite pleasant, Aide even put a spot of sun cream on!  As we got to the technical sections the wind and rain came.  We pressed on ticking both Munro's and got back to the car at 5.30.  A good 8.45 hour day.  We decided on a big day today as tomorrow is looking pretty damp so a late start is on the cards.  Kenny climbed D Gully Buttress and several teams were in SCNL.

Then got windy...

Then got cloudy

Then got wet, windy and cloudy!

The Team

Great winter environment on Aonach Mor

 This weekend I have been working with some member of the Austrian Alpine Club who signed up for a winter skills weekend.  Our group had a wide variety of experience covering 2 or 3 generations and a variety of mountaineering experience.  To optimise to teaching time and skills we opted for some mechanical assistance and got the gondola up to Aonach Mor, bringing us out in the snow.  As the weather was more desirable we opted for more of a journey and to get up high, so armed with the appropriate skills we set off for the summit station.  Unfortunately, time evaporated and we didn't make it to the true summit, sometimes the case when there is lots to teach.  We made our way back down avoiding all the pistes and back to the comfort of the gondola to save some knees.

Lunch shelter

Interesting terrain to blow away some cobwebs

Prepared to head into the 'Ping Pong ball'

In the ball

 Day 2 there was a strong desire to make use of the mechanical uplift again however the strong wind's didn't allow and the gondola was off all day.  So instead we opted for a drive over to Glencoe and headed up Coire na Tulaich on Buachaille Etive Mor to pick up where we left off.  As the winds were high today we stayed sheltered and opted for a more static skills based day covering any aspects we didn't have time for yesterday and equipped the team with enough tools in their tool boxes to go out and have a save and fun day in the hills.  The team were great sports and put great effort into everything, Mike put in a great effort trying to break the sound barrier on his ice axe arrest runs and I was very thankful of the Sloe Gin from their hip flask at the end of the day.  A great couple of days and the weather wasn't too bad either.

Steve sporting equipment older than me.

Steve's wooden Stubai axe.  Lovely piece of equipment.

The team in Coire na Tulaich

Working as an independent MIC it is great to have opportunities to further my knowledge and understanding with a group of other independent providers and hill enthusiasts.  The day was put together by the Chris Walker Memorial Trust.  This charity provides funding for expeditions to greater ranges and also helps mountaineering instructors to attend courses to further their knowledge and understanding, helping avoid further incidents and pass on crucial information to clients.  The day was split into two, we had a classroom morning looking at the theory of avalanche awareness and how we can teach this to our clients, followed by a hill based afternoon showing how we can utilise the mountains and teach clients exactly what they need to know.  As a member of the Association Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) it is important that we attend these CPD courses to make sure we stay current and in-line with modern ideas and thinking.  A fantastic day ran by Graham Moss from the SAIS.