Plenty of snow in west highlands. Milder today. Ben nevis summit visable from the Fort.

Adrian, Grant and I spent a weekend looking at mountaineering skills. On saturday, we visited Coira an t’Sneachda in the Northern Corries and climbed a line to the left of Alladin’s Colouir. This gave several pitches of snow, mixed and some good ice higher up. We topped out and looked at climibng on ice on the pitch to the right of Goat Track gully. We were back at the car park by 4pm a head of the on coming gales.

Today there were heavy snow showers at times, so we decided to head south and looks at rope skills at Dunkeld – anchors, belays and retreating off routes.

Northern corries today. Strong winds and slabby snow forming. Gullies full but avalanche debris seen. Gettting colder.

Aztars with Grivel Sliders

I tried full-on leashless climbing for the first time on saturday. What a difference. On a mixed line like Ordinary Route (IV,4) it really was a revelation, and to be honest I was amazed it’s taken me this long to convert. I added a Grivel slider to the bottom of the shafts of my Aztars. It does choke the swing slightly – but I didn’t notice it making a big difference – but this may be because I’ve small hands and wear thin gloves. The freedom it gives to allow you to use your hands on holds and place gear was excellent. And I didn’t drop them!

Lee, Andrew and I went to Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe today.
The forecast was pretty wild, but it wasn’t actually that bad once on route. We climbed Ordinary Route, abseiled off then had a quick sprint up Dorsal Arete. The turf was in great condition, and the crag had ice in places, but a good deal of unconsolidated snow made Ordinary Route tough.
The top of the crag was very windy, and these strong winds coupled with fresh snow fall was creating slabby deposits in places.

The freezing level rose a lot during the day, and at the corrie floor floor it was raining. Back in the glen to was full-on deluge and gales!