Winter Mountaineering Skills

After new year on the Isle of Skye with our caving friends, some of us stayed up in Scotland for 5 days of winter mountaineering skills booked with Abacus mountain guides.

Our idea was to start with basic skills (for me the winter noob) move onto mountaineering skills and rope work before finishing the course with some proper climbing. Due to instructor student ratios decreasing for the more advanced days we would drop in/out of the relevant sessions for each of us.

Unfortunately for us the snow, which had been on the summits, before Christmas had all but melted during a few warm days over the Christmas period. So although as we drove down to Fort William in -2°C this only refroze the small smattering of snow left above 900m.

We arrived in Fort William did some last minute gear shopping then headed to the "HGV wasteland" to park up overnight. We had a sociable van-quet and turned in early.

Apparently the conditions were not ideal to learn basic winter skills and Mike from Abacus joined us for the day such that our guide Dave could take the guys up Tower Gulley whilst Mike lead us up Number 4 Gulley where Oli refreshed her crampon skills and I used crampons for the first time.

After a ride up to the guide’s north face car park (which cuts out half an hour of up hill walking). We walked up to the CIC hut together before splitting into our groups. Oli and I followed Mike over some scree slopes until we were at the base of Number 3 Gulley. Here we practised walking across a snow field by cutting steps with our ice axes. Next we put our crampons on and practice walking up and down the slope facing up or down hill or sideways like a crab. We learnt how to cut ledges to stand on comfortably & safely and how to make steps with crampons.

After this practice we walked across to Number 4 Gulley, had a discussion about avalanche risk then ascended with Mike short roping us. At the top of the gully which seemed alarmingly steep when we looked back down it, we bumped into the other group who had just been to the summit.

Instead of heading straight down with them we decided to also bag the summit and were treated with a broken spectre and a cloud inversion. 

We then headed down the main track and caught up with the guys. At the lower car park we were surprisingly greeted with a film crew. They had come to interview Mike for a piece on mountain safety following two recent accidents on Ben Nevis. The piece aired on BBC News a few days later with us featured uploading our rucksacks from the van in the background — so I assume we must had looked moderately competent.

The next day, with our guide Dave, we tackled Ledge Route which is a ridge on the north face of Ben Nevis. Here we practised some rope work in pairs and learnt the difference between short roping (being walked along like a dog), death roping (being tied to one another but not to the mountain) and moving together (like death roping except being attached to the mountain). There was no proper snow on Ledge Route but the large quantity of rime (ice) meant we got to use our crampons.

After successfully making it to the top of Ledge Route we rejoined the main track and had another plod back down to the car park. Oli said she’d read somewhere that the main route to the summit of Ben Nevis is the most dull mountain climb in the UK. Having done it a number of times now, I agree that the unchangeable zigzag path often enshrouded with cloud is very same-y. In addition the added slippy ice down to 700m really didn't add to the knee-wrecking descent.

That evening we went to the leisure centre in Fort William for a shower. Annoyingly after half of us paid £3 each for showers we found out if we waited an hour we could have participated in "happy hour" where you can swim, sauna and shower for £1!

For our third guided day we moved to Glencoe with the hope of more snow. The night before we had found a popular overnight parking spot within walking distance of the Clachaig Inn. After a morning toilet run to the visitor centre we met Dave at the Three Sister’s car park. We worked on some more rope work by climbing the zigzags up to the summit of Stob Corie nan Lochan. There wasn't any snow but again the rime meant crampons were handy near the top. I had a go at leading Chris in our moving together pair and even placed a couple of pieces of gear under Dave's supervision.

Dave did find us a Gulley to descend which had some icy snow still clinging on. With me on short rope we made our descent. Conveniently other people had been down the gully and left handy bucket seats and ledges carved out which we could use for handy resting places as it turns out climbing down a steep slope in crampons is hard work on your calves.

At the bottom of the snow we skidded down the scree slope and headed back to the vans. That evening we had a few drinks in the vans and Edd left us (as he still has a job). The following day Chris and Olly had Dave to themselves to do some more technical scrambling.

Oli and I went for a scenic drive through the Glencoe pass and popped our heads in at the ski centre to assess their shower and water facilities. We then headed to Glen Etive for a walk, there is a famous house here which is where some of the James Bond film Skyfall was filmed. We found somewhere to park and had a meander down the river, the bog factor was quite high but we were rewarded by spotting a stag sitting on the opposite side the river bank. it obviously didn't care that we were there because we watched it  wade across the river to our side and walk into the distance. In afternoon we headed to Fort William for swim & sauna happy hour and to pick up some food and fuel.

The weather was predicted to be terrible the following day and with the lack of snow we decided to use our last day with Dave at the ice factor which is a indoor ice climbing wall in Kinlockleven.

In pairs we had a two hour session on the wall, Dave gave us some useful hints and tips like instead of using energy hitting an ice axe in, occasionally it's possible to just slot it into a hole already made by someone else. Additionally it's possible in chimneys to use your hands as well as axe's. 

I really enjoyed the ice climbing and quite fancy doing more of it, which of course requires buying even more shiny gear. Dave also gave us some tips on our indoor climbing and I had a lesson in how to lead climb. I was especially pleased with myself as I lead a grade 5 which is only a couple of grades lower than I can top rope. 

With the weather improved the following day but with still a lack of snow we opted for a gentle walking day up Stob Dubh. We relished being in the sunshine and seeing our shadows for the first day in a while. At the summit there were a couple of friendly ravens, I always forget how big they are until you see them up close. Unfortunately for Oli these were healthy ravens and she didn't get to live out her childhood dream of nursing one back to health.

That evening after a few pints in the Clachaig Inn Oli and Chris decided to climb the Aonach Eagach ridge the next day. I was a little worried about how long it would take compared to number of daylight hours as once on the ridge your are committed to finishing it. So instead Olly and I did everyone's laundry in Fort William and went to happy hour at the leisure centre.  That evening we made a group decision to run away north and do some caving whilst we waited for the winter climbing conditions to improve.

Overall I think I got the most out of our guided days being completely new to winter mountaineering, as we were unlucky with the lack of winter. However hopefully we will get some snow in the upcoming weeks.