Chasing Snow, Scottish Winter

Just want the Top Tips?

Winter this year was all about focusing on my Winter Mountain Leader [WML] Training and spending time consolidating afterwards. Rescheduled from 2 years ago due to Covid, I had finally rebooked it for February. Winter requires ‘winter fitness’ which is a notch up from summer. Knowing it would be a tough week I had high hopes for plenty of days in the mountains this season pre training. However, I only managed a mere two days in the beautiful Arrochar Alps.

Regardless, I had a brilliant week of training put on by Scotch on the Rocks. Sandy & Jonty were both brilliant and had a tough week running the course. This was due to a lack of snow and high winds, making it challenging to get suitable venues for us to cover the course content. This meant spending time hiding out of the wind on snow patches lower down. Plus the obligatory night navigation up on the plateau. This is Scottish winter though and it was a fantastic week, learning & building on my current knowledge and skills. But the training is only part of the story. I knew that after this, I had more to do to consolidate my training which was my plan for the following 3 weeks. As such, I planned one week with my partner around the Glenshiel / Kintail area, and the subsequent two weeks meeting friends hanging around the west coast, Fort William and Glencoe area.  

Week 1 - Kintail, Isle of Skye

Unfortunately, my partner generally loses out with holidays when qualifications are being sought after, as everything outing has to have a purpose! But in Kintail, we would at least head somewhere she hadn’t visited, plus the bonus of some accommodation more to her standard! Basing ourselves in Plockton, strategically close to Kintail, Isle of Skye & Torridon gave us plenty of options depending on conditions. Sadly, it was mostly summery conditions witha few left over snow patches plus some superficial dustings for the odd day. Our main wintery walk had me using skills from WML training in live scenarios, including navigation & step cutting. What started as a stunning day, quickly deteriorated as forecast, in true Scottish style, to strong winds and snow to provide near white out conditions at times. As well as the ever pleasant feeling of being pelted in the face by the snow! I was quite happy about this as it played into my practice, but my partner, not so much! We did manage to tick off 3 new munros each, Carn Ghluasaid, Sgurr nan Conbhairean & Sail Chaorrainn, so can’t complain too much!

The rest of the week was doing a mix of touristy things, combined with walking or scrambling if possible, mostly on Skye as it was relatively tourist free compared with summer. We also did some wonderful local walks around Plockton and even visited the Bealach na ba in Applecross. A famous alpine style mountain pass, with a fantastic view of Skye once you reach the top. 

On the Isle of Skye, we had a lovely trip to the fairy pools, taking in not only the pools but also a lovely scramble, on Sgurr an Fheadain called ‘The Spur’. This prominent peak must be in the centre of everyones pictures but overlooked by most. Similarly on our visit to the Old man of Storr, I figured it would be rude to not also head up to ‘The Storr’- the graham summit on the cliffs above the old man itself.

We even managed an exciting traverse of Bruach na Frithe (my partners first Munro on Skye) via Sgurr a’Bhastier and the North East Ridge. Despite giving the appearance of being summer conditions it was properly rimed up (ice over everything) for the last 100m or so! Luckily the descent wasn’t so bad as it slowed progress being awkward more than anything!

Week 2 - Glencoe, Fort William

After a nice week of scrambling and being tourists we headed home before I had a quick turn around and was back up to Oban. Although not without a couple of mountain bike rides in the day and a half I spent at home (while I waited for washing). I’d planned with a friend to spend 3 days with him, hopefully winter climbing or walking. However, despite our best effort on day one in Glencoe, this didn’t happen. We ended up wandering up to the Aonach Eagach ridge and returning, backing off due to a few icy steps and our footwear. At the car, we had 2 options. B3 boots or trainers. It was virtually all summer conditions making B3 boots a horrible option particularly for such a long day as a traverse of the Aonach Eagach without any snow. We both have a lot of experience and use trainers / approach shoes on a regular basis in the mountain days where appropriate. We were both happy to turn around if this shoe turned out not to be appropriate, as was the case. We’ve both done the ridge multiple times and the walk was just to do something on a nice day rather than doing nothing. It’s worth remembering you don’t always have to get to a summit or Munro, whatever it is. You can have good walks without summiting. In this case we got fantastic views over in the corries of Bidean nam Bian and superb views further afield without needing to risk anything going along the ridge if the ice continued.  

The second day was much more successful. We headed into the north face of Ben Nevis with an open mind, not knowing exactly what would be possible. It turned out we could access Ledge route via Gully number 5. So we enjoyed a solo up a very alpine Ledge Route. A quick bite to eat, followed by a descent of Gully number 4 including the obligatory abseil into it. (I’m always looking to improve my descending steep snow banks and this is a classic descent route.) We made good time on both routes so far and as it was only 1pm we thought we’d head round and try Gully number 2 as well.

The majority of the day was soloed except when we pitched the 2 final sections of Gully number 2 as we found the back of the queue. A couple of teams above us were just finishing the route, but the final moves over the cornice made me very thankful we had roped up for this. A spicy exit found me trying to put my foot at near nipple height hoping both axes stick as you clamber over the gap between snow and the cornice! Successfully over, I got to digging! Bucket seats and buried axes are also part of the WML syllabus so it was nice to get a realistic dig of one (albeit not for the same use) to belay my partner through these final moves. Both quite tired now, we decided to take the easy descent down the zig-zag path but cutting the first part on the snow. This successful and full on day came in at around 25km with full packs of kit & climbing gear for added effort! The pizza in Fort William was well deserved that night! 

Retreat

Our 3rd day saw us head into the north face of Ben Nevis again (due to very limited options outside of that). We were both feeling the efforts of the previous day on the walk into Coire na Ciste.  

The short story of the day is, we headed up to the climb we wanted (4 hours approx), where I traversed out 35m+ on no gear, with not the best anchor for our belay. As you can imagine, I was feeling tired and not at ease with the situation. I then returned the way I came, back to the belay with a number of factors at play. This short list won’t do the process in the moment any justice but factors included, a longer pitch than anticipated, splitting the pitch would be difficult due to number of ice screws available and tiredness, inducing extra distrust of my crampons (they’re ideally for walking not ice!). The important part however is trust in climbing partnerships and this was the right call at the moment which we both agreed. What followed was a very slow descent (on my part) back to the corrie floor with exhaustion kicking in alongside frustration & self doubt. But I know that more importantly than anything on any mountain anywhere, is making it back to the car. It was a good decision in the moment. It is very easy to be sucked into continueing and the situation getting worse in scenarios like this but all my climbing partners and I are partners because we know our limits and accept that. 

Top Tips / Lessons / Thoughts (or something like that!)

A few useful thoughts below for your mountain adventures.

Planning  

I always try have a few plans in winter (& summer) or I walk into an area with an open mind. It is really easy to get drawn into wanting to do a particular climb or walking route and you almost ignore any warning signs on the way in of information like; snow condition, weather, energy levels etc. Having multiple options and being flexible with plans plus being able to turn back if things aren’t right goes a long way in the mountains. You can still have great days in the mountains even if you aren’t summiting the mountain or climbing that climb you want to climb. Don’t let them lure you into a dangerous situation. 

Don’t recognise the map type in the pic above? Its a Harvey Map from our winter Kintail Munro walk from week 1!

Walking / Climbing Partners

If you’ve ever looked at Be Avalanche Aware, you will have noticed one of the sections is ‘You and your parties’ personal skills and experience’. 

When we’re out with others it is easy to get sucked into carrying on past where the experience & personal skills of the group can get you out of safely. I’m going to carry on because he is carrying on etc etc. 

Personally, my climbing partners and I know our abilities and limits and if the decision is made to turn around or change plan for whatever reason that's fine. The mountains will always be there another day. 

It is quite common to see people out of their depth, the last couple of years, I’ve notice a fair few walkers on the Ben Nevis summit plateau as you pop out of your climb. Their wandering along with no crampons, no axe in full on winter conditions with drops on 1 side that will be fatal with one slip. 1 friend saying it's fine and ‘dragging’ their less experienced friend up or down. often its been sunny in the glen and now they’re negotiating the terrain that felt ok on the way up (often the case its ok going up) but now struggling on the way down. Sadly, fatalities seem to happen from this scenario and there seem to have been a few in the last couple of years. 

So make sure your walking / climbing partners and you are all on the same page and happy to turn back or do alternate things - It links back to planning. Have plans A through F and more and change it depending on conditions, your skills and how you are both doing on the day.

Part 2 - Coming soon

That brings me to the end of part 1. Part 2 will follow soon with proper snow arriving in the Cairngorms allowing us to get a mix of winter walking for WML practice & some winter climbing done…

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