So its Friday. The 6th day in a row for me. So what should we attempt? There was a chance of a good weather window today so we decided to go and have a look at the CMD Arete onto Ben Nevis. 

Its been on the tick list for a while so it had to be worth a look. We set off at the usual time, about 8am. The weather wasn't ideal as we walked from the North Face car park up the track towards the CIC hut. 

As the path rose to pass the shoulder of Carn Beag Dearg we left the path and cut up the hill. there was a bit more cloud than we would have liked but we carried on going hoping that the wind would blow the cloud cover away. To cut a long story short it didn't. There were brief spells of clarity but nothing substantial. We navigated our way to Carn-Dearg Meadhonach but decided at this point that there was nothing to be gained by continuing in the whiteout with strong winds.

Rather than retrace our steps we chose to cut directly down the slope to the CIC hut. 

On first thoughts this looked like it could be a quick and interesting way down. This would prove to be half true. It was interesting. 

In normal or soft snow conditions the should have proved a swift heel plunging walk down the slope to the path some 300m below us. What we encountered was bullet hard néve. Crampons and axes made this decent possible but by now the cloud had cleared and Sarah was exposed to the full exposure of 300m of icy slide. Slipping was not an option. 

To provide some more security I started cutting steps in the ice to make a kind of stair for Sarah to follow. This was slow tiring work that did not take away from the exposure. 

About half the way down the angle eased enough that Sarah was happy to continue down with out the aid of steps. I was knackered. We got back to path just a little north of the CIC hut and made our way back down to the van. Our short jaunt to "take a look" at the the CMD Aréte had turned out to be rather an epic day out.

After our success on the Wee Buachaille. We decided on a trip from the Glencoe Ski Centre to Meall a' Bhuiridh then along the ridge to Creise. To get an earlier start on the mountain we decided to drive round and sleep up before hand. 

The view we woke to was simply stunning.

We made our way to the Ski centre then got the chairlift to the ski slopes. Now some people might class this as cheating, but I see it as taking advantage of the infrastructure and putting money back into the local community.  We got off at the ski slopes and from here things took a turn for the worse.

The smell of bacon drifting from one of the Cafes was tantalising as we made our way carefully through the ski centre to the North edge of the mountain. From here we made our way steadily up the slopes.

So far so good, but at this point the wind whipped up. It was breathtakingly strong. Literally strong enough to take the breath from your mouth. If you have never experienced this they you are missing out. Its quite staggering. 

With the wind came the clouds. They blew in thick and fast as we struggled up the hill with the wind buffeting us from the side. The further up we went the worse the snow became and the less visibility there was. 

Eventually we were forced to cut back on the the ski slopes and the ski toe. This was out of operation due to the huge quantity of snow. We could touch the top of the pylons. 

At this point I decided that it was time to head home. The wind was relentless and the visibility seriously reduced. We could have followed the ski toe to the summit but what would be the point in that? Besides we were in a gully and had awful snow conditions. Better simply not to be there. 

We went back. Later when safely having tea in the van we decided to go geocaching to fill the afternoon. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) we played on Anoach Mor. Pacing, digging holes, practicing belays and sliding around. It was cold. I got a wet bum. My waterproofs gave up in a catastrophic fashion I got a wet bum. I got a wet everything if Im honest.

So today we decided to take a stroll up the Wee Buachaille or Buachaille Etive Beg as it appears on the OS maps. This was a straight forward slog up from Glencoe. There were another couple just kitting up as Sarah and I pulled up to the car park. we used tactical faf (deliberately being slow to gear up) to allow them to break trail for us. It turned out that our faf was unnecessary. The path to the Coll was well and truly tracked out! (The university group had been there the day before). 

We arrived at the coll to find beautiful views! It was a real treat! We decided on the southerly and furthest Munro from the coll. To get there requires a 1.5km airy ridge traverse. Well relatively airy. its broad enough to walk along comfortably. Despite being buffeted by a reasonably strong wind we made it to the Munro summit. We quickly surveyed the view before turning on our heals and retreating back along the ridge. Once back on the coll it was time for lunch and to tackle our second Munro of the day. 

This was a mere 500m from the coll, but with added hight gain it took just shy of an hour to reach the top. while much broader than the other munro we were fully exposed to the wind (it was blowing us up the hill) and it was much rockier than the other. It was thoroughly enjoyable. 

Again we didn't stay long on the summit. Just long enough to readjust boots and have a drink before returning to the coll. There was nothing left to do now but head to the van and take a trip to the Clachaig Inn for hot chocolate, tea and chips to while away the afternoon. 

Day 2 with the MICs. Today we took the Uni students on a proper mountaineering day out. Boy did they love it. 

After discussing the weather forecast with them it was explained that we would be driving to Glencoe and then walking up the torturous path to Stob Coire Nan Lochain. At which point we would see what the weather conditions would allow us to do. The importance of not outlining plan A, B, C etc. was highlighted. Promising plan A and delivering plan B ends up with disappointed clients. 

We walked the tourcherous path up to the coire. Not much to say about that really other than its long, and hot work. 

When we got in to the lower coire it started to feel like a proper mountain day. The cloud was swirling dramatically around us and the ridge onto which we were planning to walk was hidden. we got on the the broad ridge without any difficulty though. We then proceeded along the North East Ridge. This is proper mountaineering. A pleasant enough ridge (see earlier blog post for photos) but with the threat of imminent death should a person wander astray. 

The ridge also as a few fun rocky/icy steps. It really feels like proper climbing (it isn't) and a real mountaineering experience (it is). This is what Scottish winter is all about!

We reached the summit cone with spirits high. A falling bottle of coke wizzed past us just below the summit. Someone wasn't getting their caffein hit any more. 

The decent down North West ridge proved iceier than anticipated but with Sue, the Uni lecturer (a WML) and I coaching footwork while Sam and Steve cut steps it was a thoroughly fun affair. At least for the students. when we were back in the inner coire it was time to start descending back to the vans. This is almost as bad as the way up. Only this time its your knees taking a battering. However soon we were back at the mini busses and it was time for Sue and I to take our leave of the group.

Thanks very much to Sam who invited me along, and Steve for letting me shadow him.

Sunday morning, usually a day of rest and religion. Not so much in the Scottish Highlands. Today I awoke painfully early. I was happy to do so. I had been given the opportunity to shadow some MICs who were running an intro to winter skills course for a University group. 

I met Sam, Steve (the MICs) and Sue at the Bank Street Lodge in Fort William. After a quick meet and greet with the group they were sent off to load bags onto the mini bus. When they were all re-assembled they were shown a weather and avalanche forecast. It was grim. Death on a stick, as someone I know puts it. However Sam has a huge wealth of sneaky local knowledge to draw on and an area of possible safety was identified. 

Next task was to fit crampons to the groups boots. We assembled in the covered car park and went through the demonstrations and explanations of boots and crampons. Fortunately the group were switched on and intelligent so this took less time that in could of. Then we checked that the group all had goggles, helmets and hats, as well as more gloves than you can shake a stick at (possibly the same afore mentioned stick). When it transpired that they did not have enough gloves, we went shopping. 

Sam assured Sue and I that this was a normal day one of training, check the clients for kit. When they don't have the kit, take them to a shop and make sure they buy the right kit. 

We then jumped in our assorted vans and mini busses and headed off to our coire. 

After a long walk through the woods we finally reached the snow line. It was wet slushy snow (as forecast) so the instructors worked with what they had and imparted knowledge and skills. Using the boot as a tool, using ice axes and self arresting were all covered. By now it was getting late so it was time to head for home. The Students loved it, and all looked like they had had a good time.

No photos unfortunately as I forgot to take any. Besides, it wasn't much to look at. 

After Beinn Eighe we had 2 days of utterly horrid weather, Sarah and I went on a road trip to Gairlochy and took shelter in a pub with free Wifi and cake on day one and we ran back to Fort William on day two. So today we tried to get the better of the weather... That is that we planed a route that would expose us to as little of the wind as possible. It kind of worked. 

The idea was that we would have a short day from Kinlochleven, shooting up Am Bodach. To get to the Coll nipped along the West Highland Way for a short while before heading North up a scar of a path in to the coire. after a plod through deep slushy snow. This was not ideal. 

The slightly daunting and surprising thing was this pair of large grey spectres that preceded our every step. Try as we might we could not shake them away from us. It was beginning to make me feel that the Big Grey Man of MacDui might be on holiday! I turned on my heels to run from the mountain in terror! As I turned I was instantly blinded by this glowing ball of fire in the sky... With a sigh of relief I realised that the Big Grey Men that had been apparently preempting our every step were only our shadows. It has been that long since we saw our shadows we had forgotten what they looked like.

Ok well that was an exaggeration but it was sunny and we were shocked. Disappointingly the sun was short lived. As we reached the higher inner coire the wind whipped round us. As we reached the Coll, the full force of the wind bombarded us, gusting so strongly that it was all we could do to stand. I had the choice of trying to stand up, or navigating. The cloud had quickly returned to hide our ridge and summit from view. 

After a few paces it was clear that it was time to turn back. We turned on our heels and fled the coll back the shelter of the coire. Mere meters below the coll we broke out of the cloud and the wind died. 

Aw we walked back down our tracks and returned to Kinlochleven and coffee in the ice factor we were forced to console ourselves with the motto of Scottish winter... The Mountains will be there another day, make sure you are. Its always the right choice to turn round and run away from them. 

As I mentioned Torridon is about the ridge lines. Beinn Eighe is one of the THE things to do. So, thanks to a break in the weather, we did it. Simples.

We did an East-West Traverse. This meant that we could step out of the van strait on to the lower slopes of the mountain. The traverse links the two Munros of Spidean Coire nan Clach (993m) to Rudah-stac Mor (1010m). It has a couple of knife edge sections of ridge but is other wise a spectacular and airy ridge. 

After a steep climb up the headwall of Coire an Laoigh we reached the ridge from there it was a short assent to the Cairn on the false summit of Spidean Coire nan Clach. Then a knife edge ridge to the real summit. Which we then had to reverse to get back to the Cairn before beginning the traverse. 

The weather was almost perfect. I don't think we could have hoped for better. the only down side was the brutally long walk out at the end. 7km back to the cars!

I can't gush words enough to do justice to the quality of this ridge. So I'm just going to post a whole load of pictures. After all a picture paints a thousand words, so here are 6000 words.

Days like today really make bad weather worth it. Until you have experienced the bad weather you really can't appreciate the good. 

Im sure my photographically minded friends will cringe at my gratuitous use of filters, but I took all of these with my iPhone through a phone case. Sorry. 

Torridon. Whats in a name, a famous bard once asked. Well Torridon sparks images of remoteness, high ridge lines, serious undertakings. 

Well our first day in Torridon didn't really have much of that. It was a little Corbett. Well little is a relative term, at 887m its still a big mountain (Great Gable is only 899m) but it was an easier day out. The weather forecast was grim again so we decided to give the big boys a miss and play around on the relatively friendly Corbett. Play we did. We did blind navigation legs. That is to say that one of the group would choose a point to navigate to then take us there while the rest of us had to work out where we have been and where we are. 

We got to the top of the mountain and it started blowing a bit so we nipped up to the summit then headed back the way we came. On the way back we stopped off at a view point, not much of a view unfortunately, then headed back to the vans. The most spectacular thing was the snow and the views around Torridon. The snow had a soft top layer that when broken off formed spectacular wheels!

Now time to plan a bigger day out...

This weekend has to have been one of the hardest of my life. That is to say it was exceptionally gruelling and at times unpleasant. Im sure that I have had worse experiences, but the pain and discomfort had faded with time, where as this is still fresh in my memory. Indeed the aches and pains are still wracking my body. 

So what was I doing? Sue and I were on a Snow-holeing adventure, come mock assessment, come learning experience.

I met up with Sue and Sam Leary in Inchlaggan. The aim of the weekend was to be shown how to dig a snow-hole properly and to have our Winter Mountain Leader Skills tested/judged. After being told off by Sam for not packing the right stuff and quick re shuffle of my kit to include the right stuff we headed up on to the mountains.

That is to say we tried to head up on to the mountains. Only there was a slight problem, the weather. If you have read enough of my blog posts you will have started to get the impression that the weather generally scuppers the best plans in Scottish Winter. So stuck our heads over this broad shoulder of mountain and got properly battered by the wind and horizontal spin drift. 

We decided to run off towards a nearby hut that was sheltered in the valley. Deep doesn't do the snow justice. At points we literally crawled across the snow. Two Winter Mountain Leader Trainees and a holder of the Mountain Instructor Certificate (for explanations visit www.mountain-training.org) reduced to crawling over the snow, it was that deep and soft. 

We reached the hut to find a massive snow drift inside, it had blow in through a tiny hole in the wall! However the hut provided a level of security. If the snow-hole proved an no go then we could at least sleep in the hut. 

Any way we did some more wading and eventually reached the site that we planned to dig our shelter in. We started digging our shelter. I wont go in to detail but it took 4h and we were getting battered by wind and spindrift. It was painful physical work. I was shattered, but very glad to be out of the wind. Goodness only knows how sue and I would have fared trying to dig the hole on our own. Sam is a machine, that woman can dig effectively, and I'm very glad she was there!

We settled in to the hole and started cooking dinner and settling down for the night. Sam had given us the blessed news that it was too dangerous to go out night navigating that evening so we would get an earlyish night. It was still gone midnight before we settled down to sleep. Sleep was broken by having to wake up and dig out the entrance to the hole. Despite that I slept like a log! My new role mat was a treat to sleep on (Exped synmat UL 9). 

Waking up on Sunday morning was quite incredible! It was clear blue skies, still breezy but good visibility and a simply stunning view. That made it all worth it. Anyway we navigated around the area. popped up an Munro that we had slept in the side of, then off up towards a second one. 

We didn't go up the second as the snow was a bit suspect and we didn't really need to go up it. It was one of those stunning days that makes all the rest of the awful weather worth it!

We pooled down the mountain and got back to the vans at about 5. Shattered. Wrecked. Broken people. The only obvious way to recover was to drive back to the Killin hotel for dinner and a discussion. After dinner I drove round to Fort William to recoup and plan for Torridon.

A fantastic, if not gruelling, weekend. Thank you Sam for agreeing to it. 

We had a day of shocking weather and geocaching on Thursday (Sarah was in her element) so we didn't try and get up any mountains. All was not lost though! we made Bannock Bread with dinner which was very exciting (photo below).

The weather was supposed to be better in the morning but deteriorating in the afternoon, so with that in mind we had an early start. I shan't waste time recounting the start of the walk, if you want to know what it was like read my previous post, conditions under foot were much the same.

We had pleasant views as we left the fence line and headed up hill and our tracks from the previous attempt were still just about visible. 

We made good time navigating our way up, its amazing how much a bit of visibility can change your perception of the the mountain! I could not have told you what it looked like from our previous attempt. 

The cloud did come in however and obscured our views ore some time. When they cleared, however, we were met by the below view. Stunning. Anyway the cloud rolled back in and soon we were navigating again. We reached the summit at about mid day, its not very impressive. In fact we were walking off it towards Ben Lawers before we realising that we had reached it. 

We stopped for a bite of lunch before turning round and heading back down the mountain. The key learning outcome of this, was that if your going up and down the same way not to try and be cleaver, but to navigate the same route (follow your original way up) so as to avoid descending unknown slopes. 

That said we made it back to the fence without any mishaps. Here we met a walker with a very cold looking dog. They turned back too. We then met a couple of walkers coming up... They turned back shortly after as well.

A good day out I think!