The Indecisive Winter Continues…

It seems to me that winter has been indecisive this season, with things looking promising one minute and then a substantial thaw setting in the next, quite often during the same day.  Today was no exception to that pattern, with plenty of snow down to 500m overnight and cold conditions first thing this morning, before the freezing level once again rose, bringing with it rain to the summits. It was certainly a day of two halves.

This pattern will play havoc with cornice collapse and triggering wet sluffs, so Katie, Austin and I decided to play it safe and climbed the SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder for the last day of their five day winter climbing course. We weren’t the only ones on the Douglas Boulder today, as other teams made ascents of the East Ridge and Gutless. For both Katie and Austin, it was their first proper taste of mixed climbing, and so both of them took a bit of adjusting to get into the swing of hooking and torquing their axes and trusting their crampons on small edges. This adjustment phase is no bad thing, as it will enable them to progress their winter climbing techniques for the future and to tackle a more diverse range of routes.

We witnessed quite a sizeable sluff pouring down Vanishing Gully, which does have some ice on the second pitch, but not enough to climb at the moment! It’s looking quite wintry for the beginning of next week, so fingers crossed.