The rain came in last night and the thaw has set in. We are likely to have warm temperatures for the weekend and the first half of next week but over night frosts next week will firm the snow and make for good climbing conditions I think. Today was a bit wet and soggy so Will, Jonathan and I decided to sty well clear of potential avalanches and collapsing cornices by climbing Castle Ridge.

There is a lot of ice in the first tricky groove which makes it much easier to climb. The easy sections are banked out with snow so a steady plod got us to the second steep section. This has no snow on it since it is steep but we got the view down the Forth Face for full value of the position! It was a great choice of climb for today and wrapped up three brilliant days of climbing with Jonathan and Will.

At the start of this week the forecast for today was pretty grim. As it turned out we had a hard frost and continuous sunshine all day. Another brilliant day in the Outdoor Capital of the UK. Will and Jonathan went up Ben Nevis in search of some ice climbing. They have both done a little bit if ice climbing before so Green Gully would have been perfect. However a team got there before us so we went to climb Thompson's Route instead. This is not a straightforward climb - it requires all sorts of bridging and searching for good ice in amongst the snow and rock. Jonathan and Will did a great job though and climbed it very well. In at the deep end with the ice climbing!

There are many big classic ice climbs in good shape at the moment. Orion Direct had a few ascents today as well as Observatory Buttress. Point Five Gully, Hadrian's Wall Direct, Astral Highway, Sickle, Minus Two and Minus Three Gullies have all been climbed recently. Mega Route X is still looking good as well as The Shroud, Gemini and The Shield Direct which was also climbed today. There are many grade III and IV ice climbs to enjoy as well including Italian Right Hand, The Curtain, Vanishing Gully, Waterfall Gully, Comb Gully, Green Gully, etc.

The classic ridges are in great shape. Tower Ridge and NE Buttress have lots of solid snow and the climbing is very nice. Both have had many ascents. Observatory Ridge has some solid snow and would be great to climb. Castle Ridge is also very snowy and Ledge Route is very well filled in with a good boot trail.

Hard mixed routes have lots of ice in the cracks and thick rime on them so they will be quite difficult at the moment. Icy mixed climbs are good though.

The big easy gullies mostly have big cornices on them. Nobody has been up or down Number Three Gully or Number Four Gully for a while by the look of it and their cornices are pretty big. The best descents are by the Red Burn, Coire Leis or Ledge Route.

We have a bit of a thaw forecast over the weekend and then drier weather next week with frosty nights and warm days. I think the ice we have currently will take a good long while to melt away and the snow cover will be here for a few months yet.

Will and Jonathan have wanted to traverse an t'Aonach Eagach in Glen Coe for a few years. Today it all came together perfectly and we had a brilliant start to three days of climbing. After fresh snow and with a forecast of light wind and sunshine there is nothing better than this traverse. It is one of the best ridge traverses in Scotland and we had it at its best today.

The fresh snow was a little sticky so it made good steps and we found the ridge to feel quite secure. The sunshine was really quite warm, creating lots of snowballs rolling down the slopes and a good excuse to wear sunglasses. It's not often you really need sun cream and sun glasses in a Scottish winter but today was certainly one of those days. There will be some heat in the sunshine tomorrow as well so make sure you look cool and avoid the snow in the sun.

Fresh snow over night and more during the day (as well as tired legs from a big day yesterday) took Cathy and I to Aonach Mor. Alison came along as well and we walked up from the top of the gondola at Nevis Range to the top of the ski area. It was quite breezy on top and on the crag on the East Face. There was fresh avalanche debris under Forgotten Twin and Easy Gully so we stayed safe by climbing on Central Buttress after abseiling down it.

We climbed Morwind first which is still great fun with lots of ice on it. We didn't top out, instead we abseiled down again to climb a line about 6m to the right of Morwind. This is not as deep a groove as Morwind so the climbing is less technical but just as steep and with not as solid ice. It was great fun and we got up it in two long pitches.

The wind dropped a bit in the afternoon so it was not so bad when we re-emerged onto the plateau and walked back down next to the ski area. With two climbs, six pitches of climbing, five pitches of abseiling and 280m of descent and ascent we were very happy to call it a successful day despite the wintry conditions. A bit of a change from yesterday on Point Five Gully!

Another great weekend for ice climbing and another hard frost last night set us up for a brilliant day today. Cathy and I were keen on a big classic ice climb today to make the most of the great weather so we walked up to the CIC Hut. There was already one team at the foot of Orion Direct and two more teams at the hut going that way. So we went up Observatory Gully and had the pick of the climbs. We went for Point Five Gully because it looked mega fat and there was nearly no spindrift coming down.

The crux today was in the chimney pitch (pitch 2) which is so full of ice that it has got a bit steeper than I've seen it before. By throwing some shapes and doing some fun bridging I managed to keep off my arms but my legs are really quite long and Cathy was not able to do the same. The Rogue pitch is a breeze and the rest of the climb is very simple. What a treat to have the climb to ourselves on a great day in great condition.

Orion Direct was very popular today as well as NE Buttress. Minus Three and Minus Two Gullies were climbed, Hadrian's Wall Direct and Observatory Buttress too. More mixed weather this week and a warmer day on Thursday will hopefully build more ice when it freezes afterwards. More days like today would be very nice for Cathy and us all to enjoy more classic ice climbs.

For the last day of climbing with Elved and Tony we went back up to Ben Nevis to climb Green Gully. Elved has a new prosthetic foot and we've been working out what we can do and how big we can go with winter climbing. The climbing itself has been going very well (Elved was a good climber before his accident and that has not changed) but there are many other things to work out. It's all been going very well so today we went for the summit plateau of Ben Nevis and Green Gully was the perfect way to get there. We managed the climb very smoothly and the walk off went well too. I think we'll be back onto classic big grade V routes next year.

A strong NE wind was blowing snow around and we had a few showers of fresh snow. The wind was swirling around the coires and straight up the gully, creating new pockets of wind slab in a few places and scouring the faces and gullies. The cornices were being eroded too. Green Gully is fat with snow ice and great fun. The left hand finish has no cornice but the right hand exit does have a cornice. The Curtain was popular as well as Tower Ridge, Orion Direct and Zero Gully. It might be a busy weekend with a good forecast and great ice conditions so get up early or go to a slightly less well known climb such as Pinnacle Buttress Direct or Mercury. There are lots of great routes so there is no need to wait in a queue.

Tony has climbed many of the classic ice climbs on Ben Nevis but he had not climbed Tower Ridge. So on a perfect day with great snow conditions we went for it today. After heavy snow yesterday we decided not to climb up the East Gully of Douglas Gap, instead we went up the East flank for a hundred metres or so before taking the diagonal ramp back to the crest of the ridge. This was all secure and once on the crest we found brilliant conditions. The rocks are very well filled in with solid snow all the way to the top. We had sunshine all day and amazing views of climbers enjoying the big ice routes. Ruth and Ian followed us up after deciding not to go for Ledge Route and so they could make the most of a brilliant day.

Westerly winds were blowing up the Allt a'Mhuillin yesterday, scouring slopes underneath the Orion Face, Hadrian's Wall and Indicator Wall. Lou and Andy found secure snow up to Orion Direct which they had to themselves. There were also teams on Hadrian's Wall Direct and Point Five Gully. Many more ice routes look really good. The Minus Gullies all look iced up, several routes on Orion Face, Vade Mecum and Sickle are good, routes on Rubicon Wall might be worth a look as well as Indicator Wall.

In Coire na Ciste the ice routes are pretty good. Snow ice gullies are nice and mid-level routes such as Vanishing Gully, Italian Right Hand and Mega Route X (climbed today) are looking great. On Carn Dearg Buttress The Shroud now has two pillars, Gemini is fat, The Curtain was climbed today and The Shield Direct might be OK too.

All the great ridges are well filled in with solid snow. Ledge Route has quite a bit of soft snow but there is now a trail up it. The big snow gullies mostly have deep soft snow in them and large cornices. Icy mixed climbs such as Tower Face of the Comb are good but snowed up rock climbs have ice filled cracks. It's all about the ice which is how it should be on Ben Nevis in March!

The temperature continued to rise on Monday to peak at +3C on top of Aonach Mor for a couple of hours very early on Tuesday morning. With rain on the snow at all levels the weak layers were broken down and the snow started to freeze solid. Yesterday stayed a bit warm and Simon and Jos had a soggy ascent of North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor with wet snow all the way up and drips going all the way up the sleeves to the arm pits!

Today we woke to snow down to sea level and more forecast during the day. So Tony, Elved and I went to Nevis Range to ride the gondola and chairlift up to nearly 900m. We climbed on the East Face which might seem like a daft idea with westerly winds blowing all the fresh snow over onto the crags. However, we abseiled down central buttress and climbed straight back out on Morwind. The crag is very icy at the moment and the climbing is excellent. Several cornice collapses made us jump during the climb but this route is on a buttress standing proud of the main crag so that it is completely safe from avalanche and cornice collapse. Even so, 50cm of fresh wind slab and a new cornice had built up in the 3 hours we were on the climb. The tops of any North through to East facing gullies will be very heavily loaded with windslab and soft cornices now. Simon and Jos went to the West Face to climb Western Rib which went very well but required some careful navigation across the plateau to find the ski area. Testing conditions all round.