Saturday 21 January 2012

A WILD WINTER SKILLS DAY

Battling with the wind in Ciste Corrie
Emily sporting essential eyewear
Windblown snow & ice in the Ciste Corrie
It was a very wild day on Ben Nevis with very strong westerly winds blowing all day but there wasn't too many snow showers, just a lot of blowing snow most of the day. I have a group of staff from Mixeden Outdoor Centre near Halifax out with me this weekend on their annual winter skills with me. My group of 4 coped well with the winds and cold as went through basic movement on snow and ice. Lots of wind blown areas in the Ciste Corrie to run through crampon technique as we progressed up the hill as far as the wee lochan at 900m. We also covered avalanche awareness today, there was quite a sizable drift of soft windslab just at the bottom of No.5 Gully. Today was a good test of clothing and coping with the weather, a main ingredient of going out in the winter mountains. Tomorrow is hopefully a little less windy! I found some spiky climbing gear at the North Face carpark when we got down. If it's yours then let me know what it looks like and I'll post it on, or come and collect it if your in FW. contact me on 077 2000 1326.

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