Our Winter Conditions Blog is written by Euan Whittaker, Paul Warnock, Martin Holland, and Tony Stone. Click on their names to find out a bit more about them.
I have just spent two days on Ben Nevis with Ian and Steve. We climbed Green Gully and No.3 Gully Buttress. Conditions are still good on the Ben but it is worth climbing early as bits of ice and some small sections of cornices are falling through the heat of the sun later in the day. Avalanches of ice and rock were spotted on the Little Brenva face.
Hi Folks. Sorry about the lack of reports last week, both Paul and i were out in Morzine skiing.
Yesterday i climbed Glovers Chimney with Ian and John. We climbed a variation starting up White Line then heading into the gully. The conditions on the exit chimney are excellent with good quality ice.
Today i climbed Tower Ridge with Davie. Again we found excellent conditions on the route and the weather was fantastic. Some icefall is occuring on aspects affected by the sun.
I was out today near the Kingshouse in Glencoe scrambling and hillwalking with the Falkirk High Tops Team. There was no snow where we were but during a clearing in the clouds, large amounts of snow were still visible in Stob Coire Nan Lochain.
I have just had two days winter hillwalking based out of Tulloch Station. Saturday was a mixture of sunny spells, rain and 75 mph winds. We ascended Sob Coire Claurigh in the Grey Corries. The ascent was on snow above 800m. Exposed turf was frozen above 850m.
Today we ascended Creag Pitridh near Loch Laggan. There was not much snow about and the turf was soft at all levels.
I had a great day out today in the Northern Corries with Tony. We climbed Coronary Bypass on Number 1 Buttress in Coire an Lochain. We found alot of helpful snow and ice, the only downside of this being that all the cracks were heavily verglassed making any gear placements difficult. The weather was also excellent.
Other teams were spotted on Astroturfer and Ewen Buttress. Another team backed off Savage Slit low down due to the heavily verglassed cracks.
One team from Edinburgh Uni climbed Honeypot on the Mess of Pottage and Crotched Gully.
It would have been possible to ski tour from the top of the Goat track to the summit of Ben Macdui. The cover in this area is very good.
Today i was out on Ben Nevis with Wayne and Norrie. We climbed Comb Gully finding good conditions. I linked the two steeper sections together in one long pitch and belayed above on a snow anchor as the usual rock belays were buried under snow and rime.
The Ben was very busy today with teams on all the usual classics and some of the harder mixed routes.
