Saturday 11 February 2012

WINTER SKILLS DAY 1

Crampon technique on ice
And with ice axe
Plenty of snow on the Nid
Descending the Nid
And finally axe arrest session to enfd the day
Helen, Dominique, Janet and Ann are out with me this weekend on their winter skills course. We took the 'easy' option today and rode the gondola on Aonach Mor to get us quickly into the snow. Quite mild temperatures and overcast but no wind. Plenty of snow on the eastern side of the hill, we went round to the Nid area and went through basic boot, axe and crampon skills with some axe arresting toward the end of the day. Even though the temperatures are relatively mild and the freezing level was probably above 1000m today we still found plenty of ice to practise crampon technique. In fact there is quite a bit of ice even in the turfy areas. Looking similar tomorrow but with the freezing level slightly lower and maybe a bit brighter, so were off To The Ben Sunday.

No comments: