High pressure brought us settled, cold, dry weather last week after a reasonable cover of snow, a quick thaw and refreeze. It was a fantastic start to my winter of guiding and climbing in which Doug and I enjoyed stunning days out, fantastic climbing and dry gear at the end of every day.

We started out on Stob Coire nan Lochan on Monday, climbing Raeburn's Buttress (AKA Central Buttress Ordinary Route). At grade IV,4 and in really friendly condition, this was a nice warm up, a reminder of the movement and feel of winter climbing. It was a fantastic way to get . Previous climbers had left boot prints if compacted snow which had frozen nicely to provide really nice sticks with the ice axes. Protection was easy to find, belay ledges pre-prepared, and travel around the mountain was simple on the firm snow.

Ben Nevis was second and a climb called Lost the Place (V,5). I knew that this had also been climbed recently, so it would be nice for us to climb. The snow has been quite cruddy for climbing (but firm enough to walk on) in most places above 900m or 1000m. Climbing something first since the recent snowfall was pretty hard going. Ali and Kelvin climbed Maneater on Aonach Mor on Monday and had to dig it out from under the cruddy snow. Lost the Place is a brilliant mixed climb which is at the harder end of the grade V spectrum. The main long pitch up a groove is sustained and brilliant, there's a weird balancy move on the link pitch, then an intimidating overhanging chimney to finish. Warming up in the sunshine on top with nearly no wind and amazing views out west was outstanding.

Doug and I upped the grade and effort levels again on Wednesday by going to Church Door Buttress on Bidean nam Bian. We climbed Crypt Route, a bizarre route that goes subterranean for much of it including a very small squeeze between chockstones. On previous ascents I have managed to fit through quite well but this time I found it properly hard! Full-on effort required for 1m of upward progress.

A slightly easier day on Aonach Mor on Thursday gave us completely calm conditions, warm in the sunshine but cold in the shade. We went to the East Face (Coire an Lochain) and walked down Easy Gully to climb Morwind (IV,4). Early season conditions with little ice build up meant that we were climbing rimed rocks and frozen turf. Like this, the climb can feel a bit more tricky (and certainly not III,4 as listed in some guidebooks). Fantastic climbing though and wonderful views over to Schiehallion and the Cairngorms.

We didn't take it easy on our last day, we went to Buachaille Etive Mor to climb Shelf Route (IV,6). This is a fantastic route that is not so well known giving six really fun pitches of chockstones and chimneys in a great position overlooking Crowberry Gully. There was just about enough snow at the start (which is quite low down) to make it feel wintry and by the top we were digging out the hooks and ledges from the cruddy snow. The top of the climbing is on Crowberry Ridge just below Crowberry Tower, so you still have to get up to the summit from there. It's a long climb and really good fun. The walk in and descent through Coire na Tulaich were about at tricky as the climbing with lots of water ice over the rocks and hoar frost covering everything that wasn't in the sunshine.

​As the weather started to show the first signs of changing with the high pressure drifting away we walked down reflecting on an amazing week of climbing. For me, there is always a bit of uncertainty at the start of every winter around my fitness, how I'll cope with back to back days out for many weeks, the physical and mental demands, but these were all addressed positively this week. It feels good to be at the start of another full winter of climbing (my 24th in a row). For Doug we nudged the experience and skills envelope a bit bigger by doing lots of mixed climbing on trad gear, a huge array of wacky three dimensional climbing and five big days in a row.

We also discovered that we had been following Harold Raeburn around all week. He made the first ascent of Raeburn's Route, Raeburn's Chimney provides the route up from The Great Arch on Church Door Buttress, and he did the first ascent of a route next to Shelf Route. All of this more than 100 years ago!

Water freezes into very different forms of ice. Here we look at three that affect winter climbers very much.

Rime is what normally makes mixed climbs white enough to go and climb.
Hoar Frost grows on horizontal surfaces in a cold, clear night and can create a very weak layer in the snowpack. Verglas is an invisible sheen of ice covering rocks, making them incredibly difficult to move over.

Rime is a type of ice crystal that grows on any surface exposed to humid air being blown onto it in a sub-zero temperature. It is often seen on fence posts and, perhaps confusingly, grows into the wind. So, you need a wind blowing cloud onto the crag and the temperature to be below zero. No snowfall is required at all. After a westerly gale, choose a crag that faces west and has been in the cloud.

The best conditions in which I’ve climbed snowed-up rock have included well-frozen rocks and a light rime of a couple of centimetres that is easily brushed away to reveal (hopefully) cracks and ledges underneath. The crags have been totally white at the start of the day, with the climbs brushed free of rime by climbers on various routes.
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Sufficient rime to make crags and climbs white enough to climb can form overnight. Twelve hours of strong winds blowing freezing clouds onto the crag is enough to form a couple of centimetres of rime over every surface of the crag.

Hoar frost is very different to rime, apart from being a type of ice crystal. Hoar frost forms during a cold, still, starlit night and is what glistens on the grass and in the trees after a hard frost. Crystals of ice grow upwards as moisture in the air falls onto horizontal surfaces. Since hoar frost only forms on horizontal surfaces, it doesn’t turn steep crags white. So, by itself, it is not sufficient to create the winter conditions required.

Hoar frost grows on the surface of the snow as well as anywhere else. When snow builds up on top of a layer of hoar frost, this buried hoar frost will stay intact and remain as a weak layer within the snowpack. The hoar frost crystals are strong enough to hold a substantial layer of snow on top, but they are prone to collapsing in a layer across a wide area. They act a bit like playing cards standing upright. In this position they can hold a lot of weight but if they are pushed in the right direction they will all fall over at the same time.

Hoar frost crystals can grow very fast and a very thin layer of them is required to create a weak layer if they are later buried. So, a night of snow showers and clear spells can create a snowpack with weak layers. Remember that it does not need to be snowing for accumulations of snow to build up. The wind can transport snow that is already lying on the ground to other places where there is shelter from the wind. Clear, cold, windy nights can a create areas of windslab witting on a weak layer of hoar frost crystals.

Verglas is a thin covering of ice on all the rocks. When you look at the ground and you see rocks that look like they might be wet, but actually turn out to be icy, you've got verglas. Not surprisingly, verglas is really tough to deal with. Walking on a path can be tortuous, scrambling over verglas covered rocks is incredibly tenuous and climbing anything can be made impossible. Not only are the handholds and footholds very slippery, but cracks can be made useless for protection and slings slide off spikes very easily. Crampons can help a little but it feels like walking on bare rocks with crampons on which is never much fun.

If the ground is very cold after a week of freezing weather, verglas can form instantly when the weather warms up a little. A moist cloud blowing over super cold rocks will freeze water droplets onto the rocks, creating a cover of very thin ice. If the temperature continues to rise the verglas will not survive very long, but there is a period when the rocks stay icy because they are much slower to warm up than the air.

Alternatively, if the rocks are all wet when the temperature drops suddenly below freezing, the water on the rocks will freeze to create the same thin layer of ice everywhere. This verglas can last a lot longer if the temperature stays below freezing.

I found conditions like this once when I walked in to climb Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor. We decided that wearing crampons for the path was the best way forward even though it looked like bare, wet rocks. On the way down we took off the crampons for the loose snow in Coire na Tullach before putting them back on for the path back to the van at the end of the day.

Let me tell you a story which, like all good stories, has something that you can learn from.

In November 2019 early snow covered the tops of the mountains. It had been cold and windy for a while so rime was building on the highest crags, delicate feathers of ice like white ferns growing straight out of the rock. Everything above halfway on Ben Nevis was looking white and wintry, and a rare calm, dry and cold day was forecast. But, typically, I had not been sufficiently organised to find a partner to go climbing with.

Instead, I grabbed some gear in a rush feeling the usual desperate urge to make the most of a good day. I wasn't at all ready for winter, my crampons and ice axes were still in the box where they had been dropped at the end of the previous season. So, I thought I would do something very familiar, a route that I know well and that is always a wonderful climb, Tower Ridge.

I have been up and down Tower Ridge many times in summer and winter, but I had never climbed it by myself in winter. The climbing is well within my grade, but the early season conditions did cause me to pause for a moment to consider what it would be like. A thin cover of unconsolidated snow would be of no use at all for the climbing, unlike the solid snow-ice that would be in place for much of the winter and well into the spring. Crampons feel wobbly and insecure when it is like this because crampon points push through to stand directly on the rock, the form of which is hidden from sight under the snow.

So, I was determined to climb carefully and slowly. This would not be an attempt on any kind of speed record and to make sure I went slowly I took my drone to record some of the outstanding situations. This, of course, was quite a distraction at times so I ended up only filming easy bits of the climb!

Strapping on my crampons for the first time that winter was a great feeling, but it also brought a vague memory that I couldn't quite place.

Stepping onto the summit was as wonderful as it ever is. The weak winter sun only just shone through the thin veil of clouds and didn't even have the warmth to melt the delicate rime ice from the rocks. It was a perfect day for hard mixed climbing but I had the whole of the North face to myself, so it seemed. 

As I unstrapped my crampons the fleeting memory came back to me. Right at the end of the previous winter I found that I had broken one of the crampons through the main body of the front section. This doesn't happen often and is not something that you can repair. Despite this, I just put my crampons back in the box and forgot about it. Not wanting to take my sharp new crampons out on an early season mixed climb I reached for an old set, forgetting that they were broken.

Thankfully they stayed on my boots for the whole climb (which is more than I can say for a couple of pairs of not-broken crampons I have used!).

So, the something to learn is of course that now is the time to get out all your winter gear and check it before you are in a rush to get out and use it. There is snow forecast for Friday and Saturday morning, the first few winter climbs have been bagged already in the Cairngorms, and a few people have already been caught out without winter gear.

It's time to #ThinkWinter!

Well that was a top weekend! The Women's Winter Festival with our fab partners Girls on Hills was a real treat. We were blessed with stunning weather on day one and more challenging weather with lots of learning potential on day two! The aims were ​empowering, encouraging and enthusing women to explore the mountains in winter, and we certainly achieved this!

​​After a winter that has been a bit more miss than hit when it comes to snow and ice cover, we were very lucky to get a return to proper wintry conditions. So much so that, unfortunately, it was a bit tricky to get to Fort William with cancelled trains and tough driving conditions. Nearly everyone made it though and we all enjoyed great days out in the mountains, superb and inspiring talks from our guests and lots of fun and laughter sharing the experience.

We kicked off with talks from Keri Wallace, trail running guide and Co-Founder of Girls on Hills, who talked about her recent record-breaking Winter Tranter's Round. And Anna Wells, climber, instructor and Founder of Rocks and Trails, who spoke about a few important lessons she's learned from years of walking, scrambling, climbing and even flying in the mountains!

​It was a packed audience in The Highland Bookshop and the stories from Anna and Keri were so inspiring. There are so many women doing amazing things while also juggling family life and careers, and it was brilliant to hear from two women who have found ways to excel at what they do in so many ways.

Saturday started sunny and frosty, perfect for getting out on the hills and learning new skills. Running in the crisp, dry air was a delight, and the ground conditions were perfect for the runners to try out micro-spikes and poles during their route that took them over Meall an t-Suidhe, around to the CIC Hut under the North face of Ben Nevis. The run was concluded with some well earned cake at the Highland Soap Company!

Winter Walking Skills groups headed to Nevis Range to make use of the uplift to get to the snow more easily. There was plenty of old hard snow to get the crampons into, and to learn how to move around efficiently and securely with an ice axe. The groups learnt about different snow types, kicking steps, ice axe arrests and various ways to use crampons, by which point it was time to get up high and catch the views stretching from the Cairngorms to the Paps of Jura.

The climbing teams went to Glencoe where all sorts of snow and ice anchors were practised, along with climbing some brilliant cascade ice. After a very cold week, there was ice in many of the stream lines, some of which make excellent climbs. This low level ice was ideal for focusing on learning skills with minimal walk in required. After eight pitched of beautiful cascade ice the climbers had certainly made the most of the day!

After a long day in the hills, the Ben Nevis Inn served us up a wonderful and very well earned meal. We had lots of people staying at the inn in their new bunk room accommodation which worked out very well. It's a great base for adventures being just outside of Fort William at the foot of Glen Nevis, and right at the start of the path going up Ben Nevis.

​After dinner talks were from Mountaineering Scotland Safety Advisor Kirsty Pallas and Lou Beetlestone, one of our instructor team for the weekend. Lou stepped up at the very last minute when Marianne Heading, winner of the Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra, found herself snowed in and unable to travel to Fort William! Lou is a full-time outdoor instructor, with a passion for mountain running, climbing and alpine mountaineering. In 2019, Lou was part of the first all-female team planning to climb all the Alpine 4000m peaks, in one summer season and she told us all about her experiences on this project.

Where day one was crisp and dry, day two was soggy and slushy! We had two very contrasting days, emphasising the changeable conditions we have to deal with in Scotland in winter. It's always useful to learn how to stay warm and dry, even in the wet weather. The poor visibility was ideal for practicing some navigation skills, the climbers found some good snow to learn how secure their snow-anchors are and the climbing on Dorsal Arete was fun even in the rain!

Smiles and good company keep you warm even when the weather is wet. The Scottish Highlands in winter can be wild and intimidating, but they can also be awe-inspiring and beautiful. With the right skills and knowledge, you can make these mountains your playground throughout the winter months. ​This was certainly a weekend of building confidence and having fun, and we will be back next year for more!

Huge thanks to Hannah Shaw www.Hannah-Shaw.com for taking brilliant images of the weekend and to the Ben Nevis Inn and Highland Bookshop for looking after us all.

Yesterday I climbed one of the best ice climbs in the world. It's called Kjorlifossen in Rasdalen, Laerdal, Norway and it is 400m of climbing at grade V (Norwegian) and WI5/5+. It's not just me saying that it is one of the best in the world, but Guy Lacelle. Guy was certainly one of the best ice climbers in the world and he travelled and climbed extensively. Before he died in 2009 he compiled a list of what he considered the best ice climbs in the world, and this list contains Kjorlifossen. Clearly the list is one person's thoughts and incorrect since there are no climbs in Scotland in the top 135 climbs in the world. But it is a very good list of world class ice climbs. And I have now climbed one of them.

This all sounds a bit boastful but I really don't mean it that way. It's hardly newsworthy that a middle age man goes and climbs some ice in Norway, even if it is a notable climb to those in the know. After all, I have nothing to show for it apart from tired arms and a smile.

Inwardly though, it means the world to me. The best bit is that I spent a wonderful day with three friends, sharing a fantastic adventure in a beautiful part of the world. Donald, Dave, Guy and I were all buzzing with excitement at the scale of the climb, its grandeur, the unknowns of the route, the formations of the ice and its quality. Drawing deeply on our combined experience and technique we unravelled the pitches one by one, carefully considering each step, each swing of the axe. At every stage the excitement grew, the view got more expansive, the climbing bigger, better and more outrageous. 

As with any adventure, it had its uncertainties and challenging moments. Like when the base cone of the initial pillar cracked in a stress fracture as Donald and I climbed it, creating a crack about 20mm across that wrapped much of the way around the whole thing. It was like a shot being fired from a gun right in front of us with a sensation of movement in the ice we were climbing on and hoping was solid and stable. I was committed anyway so I continued and Donald did the same. We carried on with minds focused on the climbing, trying to ignore the thoughts of "what if" and trying not to hold on too tight.

Inwardly for me, this climb meant a lot. For whatever arbitrary reason, I decided that this was the standard and scale of climb that I aspire to. It was the right challenge for me, hard enough, long enough and requiring a big effort mentally and physically. Other climbers have done far harder climbs, longer climbs and many more of them, but I am not comparing myself to them. I am comparing myself to the standard that I wanted to achieve, and I have met my own standard. So, what I am sharing is not so much about this particular climb and its standard, but that I have achieved one of my goals and I'm delighted. I am totally made up, super happy, still smiling and very satisfied.

This is what I hope we can all feel. One major part of climbing is about challenge, trying hard physically and mentally to achieve something. The goal isn't so much about the climb, the grade, the standard or the status of the climb. The goal is, or should be, one that you set for yourself that is the right goal for you. Don't measure yourself up with other people, measure yourself up with the goals you want to achieve.

So, thank you to Donald King, Dave Rudkin and Guy Buckingham for making this possible for me. It was emotional.

Tom was lucky enough to book onto one of our Classic Winter Climbing trips and end up being by himself for the week. This is less sociable of course but has meant that we can do just about whatever he wanted. Luckily, Tom wanted to explore the mixed up world of mixed climbing, lucky because there has been a lot of snow, continuous low temperatures and a persistent Considerable avalanche hazard. We need snow-thaw-freeze cycles to form snow-ice in our classic climbs. We have the snow and the freeze but without the thaw periods the snow has not transformed into ice or settled down into stable snow. So, it would have been all mixed climbs on buttresses anyway.

Rachael joined us on Monday and we started with Castle Ridge. This grade III is a classic ridge on Ben Nevis but it has a very distinct crux pitch in a steep chimney. With two ice axes and some comfort in hooking them into cracks and around chock-stones, this pitch can feel secure and fun to climb, but it is also incredibly exposed, awkward and pretty tough for many grade III climbers. We had a lovely day and we were suspicious of the snow everywhere, but we went up to Carn Dearg and descended Ledge Route back down into Coire na Ciste. Above 900m or so, there is a lot of snow and everything is very well filled in, so walking down Ledge Route was nice. 

Tuesday took us to North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor. This is a fantastic climb with a very good ratio of walking to climbing. Seven pitches of climbing up the continuous line of chimneys got us to the walking section to the top. This is another rocky mixed climb that can build a bit of snow-ice, something that does change the grade, just the style of climbing. There was a bit of useful snow but also lots of hooking in cracks and teetering on little ledges with front points. Precision and accuracy are required more than strength - there is very little swinging of ice axes in rocky mixed climbing, just lots of scraping and searching for good hooks.

North Buttress is a popular climb and we enjoyed the company of three other teams on the climb. On Wednesday we went to where we knew there would be nobody else. In fact we didn't see anyone from leaving the van to getting back to it. We went to the West face of Aonach Beag where we climbed Raw Egg Buttress on the crag of the same name. Tom is very fit which is just as well - this is not a roadside crag. Three hours of rough ground, crusty snow and wading through deep drifts of fresh snow got us to the climb. 

Raw Egg Buttress is an icy mixed climb, requiring a bit of ice in the grooves. We found plenty of ice, some snow-ice as well as some little bits of cascade ice that had formed from dribbles of water on the route. The buttress is a broken mass of pinnacles, blocks, walls and grooves. Punchy moves were separated by easy sections that benefited from the snow-ice. The last little wall was particularly spicy, with protection far below and a steep pull on dods of turf and nothing very much for the feet at all. The wind was blowing us up the wall but it also blew snow into our faces so we could not see very much and our eyebrows and lashes got well rimed up. Beautiful views from the top made up for the misty walk in and we got a great feeling of being out in the wilds in wild weather.

Not being afraid of a chunky walk in, today Tom and I went to Church Door Buttress. This a fabulous place for mixed climbing, home to some of the best and most charismatic climbs in Scotland. We had great fun in Western Chimney where we found lots of very helpful snow-ice, and lots of snow in general that had been blown up into the chimney. The crux overhangs quite considerably so this snow was no use there and we decided that we should bring more forearms next time!

We climbed up to the Great Arch enjoying the icy mixed climbing and cool moves. Protection is quite well buried or covered up in rimes, and then quite hard to dig out. Cracks are well iced up, but there is a lot of useful snow. This was Tom's first visit to Church Door Buttress so, to give him a feel for the place, we abseiled off the arch into Central Gully. This is 60m of vertical ground down under the arch, looking into Crypt Route all the way down. It's a very exciting abseil! Tomorrow will be a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and lighter winds so I think we will go back up Ben Nevis for another ultimate classic ridge.

This spell of cold weather will end on Saturday. We have a few days of thaw forecast from Saturday afternoon along with some light rain at all levels. This will make route choice quite tricky at the weekend and it might trigger some of the windslab to avalanche. After a few days the avalanche hazard will reduce again, especially when we return to colder weather. Hopefully some of the fantastic cover of snow we have now will turn into ice on the climbs and bring some ice routes into good climbing condition. So far, it is shaping up to be a very good winter for climbing.

We have space on our Classic Winter Climbing trip in March (13th to 17th March) as well as availability for private guiding in the week of 6th to 10th March. Get in touch if you'd like to book either of these.

This week has been very much like January on the west coast of Scotland should be - cold, wet and windy. Each day, Richard, Phil and I have come back soaked, battered and exhausted. Each evening we have dried out all our gear ready to do it all again the next day. Winter climbing is a strange game.

We started out on Tuesday with Curved Ridge. This was actually lovely and we had some nice views. The ridge was well covered in snow and the wind was not as strong as forecast. The temperature did rise to above the summits though so we got pretty wet on the way down. We were talking about avalanches, snow transportation and signs you can see as you go along. The sastrugi you can see in the picture above are the lines formed by the wind scouring away snow and putting it down somewhere else. This is an indicator that this particular slope is more becoming more stable.

Yesterday we drove over to Glen Shiel where we climbed the Forcan Ridge. This spectacular, long ridge is a fantastic expedition that goes over a few tops before arriving on The Saddle. We moved together in alpine style for the whole climb, placing protection in the form of slings on blocks and through threads, and weaving around blocks on the ridge to act as anchors on the rope for us. There is also a cool little abseil that adds a bit of spice. Gusty winds and fast moving showers and clouds made it very atmospheric.

Today we went up Ben Nevis for another soaking. We climbed The SW Ridge of Douglas Boulder to nudge the technical level a bit higher and try out climbing with two ice axes. It was pretty well buried in snow so we didn't see many of the hooks that we pulled on, but we got an idea of mixed climbing. Ben Nevis above the CIC Hut is a very white place right now. Lots of snow has built up over the last few days with the freezing level going up and down a bit to lock the snow in place. An icy crust on the snow gave us the confidence that the snow we were on was not going to avalanche and the descent down East Gully of Douglas Gap was wind blown so little of the fresh snow that fell during the day had collected there.

If you want to go climbing at the weekend, you should be a bit cautious with the snow. Avoid the gullies and stick to ridges and buttresses would be good advice. There is a lot of snow in the gullies and we saw one avalanche today and the debris of a second. The snow will take a while to transform into good ice for climbing on. There is still some ice around - Vanishing Gully looked fully formed, but it is hard to tell when there is so much snow on top of the ice, and this is where we saw an avalanche come down!

The buttresses are very white with rime and snow so if you choose a crag that faces the wind (where most of the snow has been blown off) you will find some good climbing. Turf is frozen above 1000m. Tower Ridge would be a bit of a wade digging a trench through the snow, so try and go second and let someone else enjoy the hard work!