Saturday 29th March 2014 |
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Back in the snow in the Cairngorms
I was one of 16 mountain professionals out today for some Continued Professional Development. We were out with Mark Diggins and Keith Miller of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service.
We looked at the theory of the latest thoughts on avalanche avoidance and then headed into Coire an Lochain for some observations of the snow.
There is still plenty of snow on the hills with recent releases visible and large cornices still threaten much of the Lochain buttresses. |
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Sunday 16th March 2014 |
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Melting fast on Ben Nevis
Pete and I headed up on to Ben Nevis today. We traversed the Douglas Boulder via an ascent of the West Gully and an abseil of the East Gully. The SW ridge of the Douglas Boulder has very little snow left on it and lots of vegetation and loose rock.
There are a lot of bergschrunds opening up in the remaining snow below the crags. As well as cornice and avalanche debris there is a large amount of rockfall around.
We saw very little of the mountain as it was shrouded in mist. It was 3 degrees at the Douglas Gap.
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Friday 14th March 2014 |
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Warm and windy in the Cairngorms
Today I was climbing with Pete in Coire an T-Sneachda. It was warm and windy as expected but we still managed 2 very contrasting routes on Fiacaill Buttress.
We headed up The Seam first which although thawing rapidly did have some helpful snow and ice. Pete speedly seconding so that we were back in the coire by midday. So we then decided to do Fiacaill Couloir too. No sign of the chockstone still buried in snow. In places the snow was solid but mostly mushy.
Neil and Miles were out on their Guides winter test and Miles climbed Rampant.
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Monday 3rd March 2014 |
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Three snowy days in the west highlands
Over the last 3 days I was working on the west coast with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. Ken, Ian and myself were taking members of the team out for winter climbing training.
The snowy weather and conditions that have characterised this winter persisted this weekend. Fortunately it was less stormy than of late.
On Friday I climbed Dorsal Arete in Stob Coire nan Lochan with Matt and Emma. Matt was keen to lead so he lead much of this route. I don't think I've seen the 'dorsal' quite so snowy ever before and the top was surprisingly steep with a slight cornice.
On Saturday I was out with Colin and we had a great day climbing Castle Ridge on the Ben. Lots of snow on the route except for the crux which had some tricky moves on some cruddy snow ice.
Yesterday I took Matt and Colin up the south west ridge of the Douglas Boulder which has become a well travelled route this winter. There were folk on NE Buttress and Observatory Buttress. One team got up the Curtain while one team opted to back off it. We also saw and heard an avalanche coming down North Gully.
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