Gwilym's Adventure Blog

With storms raging up high, we took the sensible option of staying low and doing some dry tooling at Onich Slabs (along with a large number of other people) Sometimes the mountains do not want us up there!

On day 1 of a west coast based Winter Climbing Skills course. We did (rather optimistically) have a look at the north face of Ben Nevis and discuss avalanche awareness and making sensible mountain decisions, before beating a hasty retreat to The Ice Factor for a couple of hours ice coaching (in the relative warm and dry).

Back out with Angus and Graeme in Corie An T'Sneachda but looking at climbing skills this time. With some input from me, the guys took themselves up Fake News (Grade II) This was another day of being observed as I work towards becoming a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor .

Today I was out with Angus and Graeme looking at Winter Mountaineering skills in Coire an T'Sneachda. The weather did turn quite Scottish at times but there were still a couple of opportunities to take photographs I was being observed by Giles as this was part of my assessment to become a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor .

Pretty windy up high so it was away from the main Cairngorm Massif today on Meall a Buachaille looking at all things navigation.  The paths on the map don't match those on the ground so it is a great place to learn contours are the prime method to navigate by

Our attempt on Fiacaill Ridge was thwarted by wind today so we dropped back down onto some snow to look at abseiling from snow bollards, managing changeovers in bucket seats and continuing to work on confident foot work in snow (probably the most fundamental skill of all). A little bit of navigation practice them followed as we headed back out to the ski centre and of course, coffee and cake. Always nice to see some Ptarmigan but they were struggling to stay camouflaged on the limited snow cover. Practising tying knots with gloves on is an essential part of winter climbing but can be done in the warm

Today was spent with Marcus and Jamie looking at all things snow climbing. We managed to make 8 pitches up one of the remaining snow ribbons in Corie An t'Sneachda and used bucket seats backed up by snow bollards, a deadman and  a buried axe as well as a rock thread, a bit of rock gear and a rock spike. A lack of winter did not mean a lack of learning opportunities and as with most Wet and High Adventures courses, coffee and cake at the end of the day