WINTER SKILLS UNDER THE BEN

Kris descending below the Douglas Boulder

Moving on steeper ground

Shelter now and again

Axe and wind technique

Carn Dearg Buttress just visible today

Kris is out with me over the weekend, a day of winter skills with the aim of traversing the CMD arête onto Ben Nevis on day two. We set off to the CIC Hut this morning with not a great weather forecast, snow showers constant and that now common factor, high winds. It started snowing above 500m and head wind becoming stronger as we approached the CIC Hut. It was nice the door was left open so we could sort our gear out. I've never seen so much snow banked up over the hut. We faced the storm, spin drift, snow and poor visibility and headed under the Douglas Boulder for some kind of shelter. Another one of those days were communication a struggle as Kris got to grips with the basics of axe and crampon technique, along with staying up right. After lunch we headed over to the other side of the Allt a' Mhuillin to see if we could find a bit more shelter, turning our back to the wind and traversing across the slopes of Carn Mor Dearg. Not much in the way of views today! A group we passed did well getting up Ledge Route earlier on.