|
 Today
it has been muggy and some small amounts of rain. The forecast
is still for colder weather to come. Watch this space!
Reasonable conditions in the Cairngorms today
and definite cold weather for the start of next week. It's
all looking reasonable for a while yet. The snow in Coire
an't Sneachda was in good shape today for Ewen and Chris.
 Don't
all rush at once! Everything is pointing to a cold weekend
and further cold weather next week. The hills have plenty
of good snow and ice and Ben Nevis as usual at this time of
the year will come into good shape if the forecast holds.
Watch the weather forecasts and head north folks. Choose your
route carefully as the high gullies may be prone to the odd
'whoofer'! That's an avalanche if you are wondering.
Thanks to Ewen Riddell and his waterproof Pentax
Optio digital camera for this shot today on Glover's Chimney.
Plenty to go for on Ben Nevis. This route is complete and
in reasonable condition, along with many others.
Two avalanche accidents yesterday. One in Number
Two Gully and another in Gardyloo Gully. Take care folks.
Have faith folks! It will all come good again
and in fact a few days of drizzle will be beneficial, honest,
trust me. More cold forecast for the middle of the week and
still plenty of ice and snow to go for into April.
Today has been okay, but windy at times. Now
it is starting to rain (1600 hrs) with a forecast of a high
avalanche risk as the temperature climbs. A report and pictures
from a rope on Minus Two Gully last week.
 Dear
Alan
Yes it was slow going on Minus 2 Gully last weekend- soft
and worrying in places, especially on the traverse on pitch
2. I guess the slightly milder weather of last weekend just
took the edge off things. With a hard freeze it would have
been in pretty good condition. All the same, some fantastic
climbing . A word of warning for North East Buttress goers,
the 40 foot corner was very awkward and not easily avoided
because of soft and unconsolidated snow on the right flank.
Martin and Nick
 Today
turned out to be a great day all round. Plenty of traffic
jams behind slow groups on Tower Ridge. Those who headed off
to No 6 Gully in Glen Coe had a good day out. It's a while
since the West Face of Aonach Dubh has provided winter climbing
in recent years. Some teams out on the ice around Central
Gully on Stob Coire nan Beith. Groups in Crowberry Gully this
week and good conditions on the Aonach Eagach Ridge. The splendid
picture by Tom Parkin is on Bodice Ripper, Stob Ban.
 The
first pitch of Point Five Gully is looking huge just now,
but the forecast this weekend is not up to much. Some more
cold weather will return later next week and all it takes
at this time of the year is a touch of frost to put the ice
climbs back into good shape.
Thanks to Spike and George for featuring in
the ..'snowy des-res'... beneath Carn Mor Dearg. Not bad for
a quick trip north on the sleeper train and a cheap quality
overnight self-made doss. George was mighty impressed with
the double bedroom, kitchenette and standing room. I hope
Fulham is not too mundane for you George!
 All
change!! Bags of new snow down to Fort William High St! This
will put many of the big gully lines into hibernation for
a while, unless of course you fancy a wade through avalanche-prone
couloir's. The snow is not falling with much wind just now
at lower levels, but windslab has been noticed forming by
one team who were on Twisting Gully today. The same was true
on Left Twin, Aonach Mor. Winds at altitude will increase.
Start shoveling!
Yesterday on Lochnagar there was a fully-formed bergschrund
across the
full width of the bottom of Shadow Couloir-- about ten feet
deep and
five wide, overhanging on the upper side, and quite tricky
to get over
unless you got your tools into the rock buttress at the edge.
One reason it was hard to get over was the hopeless softness
of the
snow. This and the rotten ice that was falling off the rock
wherever we
tried to climb it made us back off Giant's Head Chimney fairly
sharpish,
and amble up the Black Spout LH instead.
The place needs a proper freeze and then it would be in brilliant
nick.
Thanks to Tim Chappell for this report.
By comparison everything appears to be rock-hard on the west.
Hope everything is OK up there and the season is going well?
I guess you know plenty conditions wise but just in case........Owen
Samuel was out with a client of mine over the last few days
and climbed No.6 Gully and Twisting Gully in Glen Coe on Thursday,
followed by Last Post on Friday. Last post was cascade quality
ice apparently.
On saturday they climbed Zero Gully on the Ben. Following
this Owen had a rest day and climbed a new VII,8 to the right
of Darth Vader in Coire na Ciste (sunday) with Nick Bullock.
For me the leg is improving, just a question of building the
strength up really. Am hoping that I might be able to make
the most of April's conditions on the Ben. If I manage to
get up north i'll drop in..
All the best..
James
Expect you are keeping busy at the moment, now that conditions
have at last improved. Just to keep folks updated, my friend
Roger and I climbed Smith’s Gully on Creag Meaghaidh
today the 19th after having waited years for the chance to
climb it. It is a fantastic route, superior I have to say
to Point Five on the Ben. The ice was pretty good but the
lower narrow sections were getting a bit hacked up, which
made them quite scary, there was also some sugary snow ice
at the top of some of the long ice pitches, which required
some care to negotiate. I believe two parties climbed it yesterday
along with a good friend who unfortunately had a slight fall
and had to abandon the route with a broken tooth! The post
face looks very good just now, with a lot of blue ice about.
Let’s hope it lasts a while longer.
Thanks
Sean Tillett
Ropes out on Observatory Ridge reported hard
conditions and into Zero at the top. Zero Gully (thin and
not too great), Minus Two Gully (slow going), Point Five Gully
(aerial moves noticed) , Orion Face (looked better higher
up) & Gemini were climbed today along with plenty of others.
Conditions are good in places and thin in some. The camera
is out snow-holing tonight, so more pictures tomorrow. A direct
ascent of Italian Climb, straight up the overhanging bay onto
Tower Ridge above the initial two traditional pitches is reported
to be the hardest climb now on Ben Nevis, by Dave Macleod.
Good effort. White Shark on E Face of Aonach Mor was falling
to bits in the sun today. If you are heading towards Aonach
Mor, try any route which has a North and West facing side
to it, as this avoid the early morning sun. Also, routes over
in the Stirling Bridge area get far less sun. No 6 Gully on
Aonach Dubh, Glencoe was climbed yesterday and reported to
be okay at that time.
More cold weather to come for at least a week
or so. Wednesday 29th March shows a milder day with some rain,
before turning cooler into April. Places in the CIC Hut available
this week from my courses, even if you are not attending a
course.
Is anyone having trouble making the SAIS (Avalanche
site) work? My PC refuses to open it just now! Groups out
on Point Five Gully today and Glover's Chimney and Tower Ridge.
Thanks to Robert 'tHart from last weeks CIC
Hut course for this picture (below) taken from the summit
of Ben Nevis
 Hi
Alan
Quick note just to let your readers know that the Cuillin
are, once more, back in very good shape for a traverse. Very
different conditions from February. Some of the neve on the
south sides is now like steel after a driving thick mist on
Tuesday. Ironically it's the northern aspects that are a wee
bit sugary on the surface still but certainly well consolidated.
I normally say just one axe but there are a lot of technical
ice moves just now so 2 would be wise. Definitely recommend
3 days for anyone tempted.
Routes wise there are some little gems appearing in obscure
locations where deep snow has been washed so thoroughly that
only thick ice is left. We did Hamish's Chimney on Friday
last; 400 ft of good quality III. Today we were on Foxes Rake
once more which is now distinctly III with 3 pitches recommended
instead of the 2 that were used a few weeks ago. Screw belays
on Skye!!
Cheers,
Mike Lates - Skye Guides
Very good conditions today on Ordinary Route
Central Buttress - Stob Coire nan Lochan - Glencoe, but it
was crowded. No imagination these National Centres!
A team out on Morwind today reported decent
turf with plenty of new snow as well and pretty quiet.
Just back from a quick trip to Old Trafford
where Newcastle got what they were due on Sunday,  Rooooooney-Rooooooney!!
The roads north were clear until we hit the Scottish Executive's
excuse for a trunk road on Loch Lomond (A82) north of Tarbert.
Every other trunk road was open on the west barring this one.
Why do we keep voting for these people? Answers on a postcard
to Edinburgh where the roof of the grossly overpriced 'Doss'
for MSP's is now falling down after only a few months. By
the way, the same contractor (if you believe what you read
in the news) has been responsible for another public building
where the roof is caving in!
Now to something much more interesting. We have
had a lot more snow over this last 48 hours and more cold
weather for the coming week and through until the end of March.
Check out the website above at metcheck. And just to remind
you all what it was like a week ago on Ben Nevis, thanks to
the cascade photo from Dan Lassman showing the ice curtain
on the tiers below Carn Dearg Buttress. Who needs Norway or
Cogne? Today it took one group nearly three hours to get to
the foot of North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor, due to
the deep snow.
 And
a report in from this weekend.....After being snowed in at
the Raeburn hut it was good to finally get out last night.
A quick report of conditions on Creag Meagaidh:
Only about ten cars at car park. We climbed South Post Direct.
The first pitch was brilliant ice 55m long. 100 meters of
scary loose snow above to great rock belay below second ice
pitch. Some places the ice was a bit soft and made steep sections
a bit more serious. The last big ice pitch was in great nick
with good belay above right. Loads of Spindrift all day. It
seemed as if the leader disappeared for good as we got hit
by big flows. Some more like an avalanche release from high
up.
Luckily no cornice. Conditions on the summit were horrendous.
The spindrift froze our eyes lids and we had to use our goggles
to navigate down to the window. The wind nearly blew us over!!
A proper full long Scottish day and a good route. Other routes
climbed Pumpkin reported excellent, Last Post, the first big
pitch was in. Above unconsolidated. Centre Post and Staghorn
also climbed.
Enjoy the hills!!
King Regards
Laubie
 Editor's
note: Sounds like dicing with avalanches on Creag Meagaidh
is an acquired taste for SMC (?) members only. Don't try this
at home folks!!
Course
availability for March/April with West Coast Mountain Guides
Intro
Climbing 12/16th - Intro climbing 18/19th - CIC Hut 19/24th
- Anything
else you fancy, please get in touch. More winter on the way
for this week and next weekend.
 A
mixed week up at the CIC Hut. The approach to climbs has been
tiresome at times with surface crust not holding body-weight,
especially if you eat too many mince-pies. Ice conditions
are okay once the routes are started. Some climbs such as
Vanishing Gully and The Curtain are very thin and not really
a real option. Routes climbed this week that I know about
are as follows: Route II (Carn Dearg Buttress); Gargoyle Wall;
No 3 Gully Buttress; N.E. Buttress; Observatory Ridge; Point
Five Gully; Green Gully, Tower Ridge; Glover;s Chimney and
no doubt quite a few more. The week ahead looks pretty cold,
and also into 23rd March, so all the snow and ice is due to
build again and some of the routes mentioned above could be
in very good shape indeed. It is certainly pretty chilly outside
today.
 This
time of the year often produces the best conditions with the
current forecast of colder weather staying around. The days
are longer and the light for photography late in the day on
Ben Nevis, can be very productive indeed.
Course
availability for March with West Coast Mountain Guides
Intro
Climbing 11/12th - Intro Climbing 12/16th - Intro climbing
18/19th - CIC Hut 19/24th - Anything
else you fancy, please get in touch.
 What
a difference today on Ben Nevis. A mild pulse of air has softened
the snowpack and made travel pretty tedious. At least over
the last few weeks a good beaten path has been available to
approach the routes. Some new snow also fell during last night
and was still falling on the high tops as we descended No
4 Gully this afternoon.
Once we waded through the deep sticky snow and
made three pitches on the approach, the main pitch (see images)
of Central Gully R-Hand was in very good shape and sheltered
from any wind.
Other teams climbed Raeburn's Buttress/Intermediate
Gully and some backed off as well in the less than perfect
conditions.
 Green
Gully and South Gully were also climbed today and maybe others,
but the visibility was very poor all day long.
A rope also climbed Morwind on Aonach Mor East
side today and said it was good and the turf was still well
frozen. A visit to Taxus on Beinn Dotaidh proved a wise move
for one group and they reported good ice on that route.
The week ahead looks unsettled, but not very
high temperatures, so the white stuff should not disappear
to quickly, in fact it may be increased.
 Plenty
of action by-passing the 'Mantrap' on N.E. Buttress today
on Ben Nevis! Also a team out enjoying the traverse of Route
II on Carn Dearg Buttress which looked in good shape from
afar! Tower Ridge was awesome and no wind at all. Just a glorious
day out.
And we think our routes are overcrowded! Let's
count our blessings that we're not forced by geography to
end up on Idwal Stream (II) in the Devil's Kitchen: Dangerous
Climbing
 My
partner's hurt his arm, so I went out alone and had a fabulous
Sunday soloing easy gullies on Bidean-- Boomerang II, NC Gully
II, Central Gully I/II. All dead easy for the most part, but
one or two gnarly steps. Knee deep snow and hardly any ice,
but hey, it's got to be better than Wales!
Best wishes
Tim C
 We
climbed South Post Direct on Saturday 4th March and found
the conditions excellent. The Initial pitch was going proper
V but with good thick ice, central section was a bit of a
swim but I suspect this is always the case. Central pitch
is lovely snow ice and the last pith goes about the same grade
as the first. Topped out in full conditions and headed for
the window.
Central post looked ripe for the taking and another party
were making a good attempt on Last post with ice its full
length.
Walked in again on the Sunday hoping for a short day at the
Inner Corrie. Spoke to a couple of lads who had camped by
the lake and a team from the Rucksack club who'd built an
Igloo at the window! Had been a wild night and at least 150mm
of snow had fallen and had been blowing hard. Cinderella had
avalanched that morning and we witnessed a large cornice go
on the south facing slopes of inner corrie. Before the clag
came in we could se the exit slopes above the Wand and Pumpkin
and it looked like the cornices had increased considerably
over night so after digging a pit on the lower slopes (Cat
3 we thought) and the worry of wind slab on the exit slopes
we turned tail and headed home. (Good move AK). Live to fight
another day.
Post face still looked good and the 1959 route on Pinnacle
looked good. Ritchie's Gully had a cooling ice formation at
its base but suspect the approach gully (Reaburns is it?)
would be a pain and potentially unsafe.
Jim Walton
 More
from today on Tower Ridge folks. The weather looks set to
become damp for a day or two. This is good news and hopefully
will melt away any dangerous layers in the snowpack. However,
as usual, keep your eyes skinned for avalanche hazard and
turn back if unsure, like the lads did above in Creag Meagaidh.
 Final
slopes on Tower Ridge into the summit sunshine. The boys from
Birmingham having another great day out on Ben Nevis.
Course
availability for March with West Coast Mountain Guides
CIC
Hut 5/10th - Intro Climbing 11/12th - Intro Climbing 12/16th
- Intro climbing 18/19th - CIC Hut 19/24th - Anything
else you fancy, please get in touch.
Plenty of people out on Curved Ridge in belting
conditions. Tower Ridge also. Some folk on Gemini and Route
1 coming in from the Curtain level. Comb Gully and Vanishing
Gully reported as thin, crusty and kicked out. Amazingly no
teams on Point Five Gully according to those who were viewing
it from Tower Ridge. Some mild weather now forecast for Wednesday,
but not certain of the arrival time!
We climbed on Aonach Mor East Face yesterday
and found good ice south of Easy Gully. Plenty of deep unconsolidated
snow if you get out of the track! Another good weather day
today. The weather looks a little less settled for the week
ahead, but not massively warm, and plenty of wintry showers
on the high tops. All in all still a good winter and set to
be that way for a while. If we get a few milder days that
would be good as the snow-pack needs damping down and then
another freeze. Much milder conditions appear to be approaching
for 13th March, but that could be a blessing if it does not
continue mild for too long!
Thanks to Philip Santo from the deep south of
Bournmouth for this picture taken on the Forcan Ridge recently.
Don’t know if you may be interested in a shot of the
Forcan Ridge, Glen Shiel, taken during the last magnificent
week. Snow was unconsolidated and rather thin in places, but
how good to have some present for a change. No doubt it has
all changed after the last few days, so this may be too old
for you. But what a superb week for ridges.
Details from Philip on the camera he uses: I
use a Konica Minolta Dimage A200. It is rather chunky, too
big for a pocket, weighs 625 gms. and isn't really suitable
for one-handed operation, so it’s not good in positions
needing three points of contact, but the flexibility of the
28 – 200 mm lens plus x4 digital zoom with 8 megapixel
resolution makes the effort very worthwhile to have it with
me on the hill. It has given me outstanding service over the
last year and I’m extremely happy with the results from
my annual winter trip to Scotland this year. I can’t
recommend the camera too highly. With regret, after 35 years
of slides, I am now a full convert to digital.
Dear Alan,
thanks for squeezing us into Calluna on Weds. evening. Stefan
and I headed to Ben Nevis yesterday and did Green Gully. We
had a fantastic day. Topping out into glorious sunshine was
just great. The route is in reasonable shape I think. In any
case, we clambered our way up it ok. Back to work for me unfortunately!
best wishes,
Richard
 For
your records if you like, I was on Creag Meagaidh yesterday
(Saturday) where we climbed The Wand on good ice and if you
follow a further short pitch of ice and mini gully above there
was no cornice at the exit. (Although big ones either side!)
There was deep unconsolidated snow in the approach gully requiring
safe travel and conditons were definitely deteriorating through
the day... a foreign team climbed The Pumpkin (also no cornice)
which they thought was brilliant and I saw teams on South
Post. Centre Post Direct looked fat from a distance. There
are some massive cornices on the slopes opposite the Inner
Corrie and the thaw this week may see some of these coming
down! We finished our day off by navigating to the summit
and back to The Window passing a few other hardy folk in the
white-out! Igloos and snow holes were being built at The Window.
Thanks to Giles for this report. - Also from Giles in the
Cairngorms! The Yellow Bothy (Trapped Helicopter) makes for
a great lunch stop with groups, they are now offering Hot
Soup and Rolls. There has been an OS name change too ...it
is now Coire an t Seaking!
 Green
Gully is rather kicked out lower down, but good higher up.
Beinn an Dothaidh is in good nick and Beinn Udlaidh is okay
for the easier routes. We were on Aonach Mor today and the
snow is still unconsolidated, but the turf is good and where
any ice pokes through it is in good shape. Many of the cornice
exits now have trenches through them on Aonach Mor, so that
particular problem is not such an issue as earlier in the
week!
Fort William appears to be in a snow shadow
and we have had beautiful weather again today. The roads are
clear, so put the pedal down and head west and north.
Sorry for the late report, not sure if it is
worth putting on the site really but here goes. Did an afternoon
solo of South Castle gully today (Friday 3rd), was very atmospheric,
the two icy steps at the bottom gave some good sport, especially
for the first proper climb of the year! Was a lot of deep
snow in the upper gully which was a bit worrying but it seemed
stable enough to climb with care. Saw a team out on castle
ridge, but apart from that very quiet. Boomer’s Requiem
looked to be forming up nicely if thin, but the Shroud is
non existent. Thanks to Sean for this note.
 Plenty
going on on Ben Nevis. Point Five Gully, Vanishing Gully,
Hadrian's Direct, Gemini, Green Gully to name a few. Conditions
on these routes are varied. The team on Hadrian's appeared
to slow down once the upper snows had been reached and the
Gemini rope may have roped off (?). Hadrian's might be better
with a rappell after the difficult lower pitches, so take
60 metre ropes. Aonach Mor East side was very busy. There
is still a lot of unconsolidated dry snow off the beaten track
and the good weather appears to have at least a week left
in it before any real rain.
Course
availability for March with West Coast Mountain Guides
CIC
Hut 5/10th - Intro Climbing 11/12th - Intro Climbing 12/16th
- Intro climbing 18/19th - CIC Hut 19/24th
Thanks to Barny for this report.............Had
a cracking day on Central Gully, Stob Coire nam Beith on Saturday.
The lower half was a bit thin but gave really good delicate
climbing, and the upper buttress was well covered in deep
powder snow with a thin crust which was awful, it took us
hours to wallow through it. Interestingly the upper buttress
was widely covered in old avalanche debris. Only saw 2 other
parties on Summit and NW gullies
Also check out this report from Mike Lates and
his good picture of Steve Perry going for all the 'Munros'
in winter. Thanks Mike and good luck to Steve.
 Last
week was a stunner. Sugar/hail took a long while to consolidate
except where trodden. We were lucky on our Ridge traverse
as a guy called Steve Perry was breaking a good % of the trail
on his "continuous Munros in Winter challenge."(see
below.)
We stashed bivvy gear at half way on Monday. Started on Tuesday
21st(11 hours) finished on Wednesday (12 1/2 hours). We reached
Gars Bheinn in 18 hours from Gillean. We skirted Bidean and
dodged the short side of the gap as the flutings on it were
over a foot long but not big enough to do pull-ups on!
Overall the Ridge was in good winter garb despite appearances
from the ground or the south. Squealing crampons was only
on some abseil's (11 in total)and the first 30 ft of the In
Pinn.
Route-wise the only noteworthy ice was found on Foxes rake
last Saturday (25th) which gave a 2 star grade III with 2
pitches which would have taken screws if we'd brought any.
Bhastier face of Gillean looked another ice possibility.
We're under deep snow down to sea-level now. Most remarkable
is that it's the first time since 2001 that snow has fallen
on well consolidated snow in the Cuillin. (Always stripped
bare before the next fall since then). Swimming is the order
of the week just now but a wee thaw (the easy bit on Skye!)
followed by another cold snap should give us some more Skye
Nirvana.
Steve Perry is attempting Challenge 284, to link all the Munros
continuously between 1 December and 31 March. He had 84 left
when we left him on 22 Feb and knew that time was tight. This
snow is terrible news for progress through Affric. Having
seen him bound up 300ft of steep bog to rejoin us after a
10 hour day I do think he has the physical ability if anyone
has!
He is raising money for Cancer
research and his progress can be followed on his site through
www.rab.uk.com/expeditions
Here's a shot of him on Alasdair after joining
us from Mhic Coinnich to the TD gap.
Mike Lates.
Skye Guides.
www.skyeguides.co.uk
Another glorious day on the west coast mountains.
Curved Ridge in great shape. This picture by Tom Parkin. Teams
out on Aonach Mor reported only a few climbs which could be
climbed without a big cornice. Left Twin is pretty well kicked
about, but the ice on Siamese Twin is 'stonkin'
 Tonight
we have a deep clear sky with bitter temperatures. The cold
weather looks set to continue well into next week and maybe
the weekend 11/12th March, so don't hang up your axes just
yet. Late winter into April can often be very good so let's
keep our fingers crossed this year!
Course
availability for March:
CIC
Hut 5/10th - Intro Climbing 11/12th - Intro Climbing 12/16th
- Intro climbing 18/19th - CIC Hut 19/24th
Here you will find an archive of other years
winter climbing conditions.
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