Storms.

It's been a very stormy week. Continuous strong winds brought snow this week and have left deep deposits in very sheltered places only. Thankfully, these are in all the right places for climbers and skiers!

On Thursday it rained up to the summits and now the old snow has settled and has a decent crust on it with some fresh, cold, dry snow on top. The skiing today at Nevis Range was lovely in the fresh snow from last night. There were a few icy patches to be wary of but in genreal it was really good fun to be out skiing. Well done to Nevis Range for getting anything open today after a ferocious week of weather! The skiing was pretty good in some Glencoe Gullies such as Broad Gully and Boomerang Gully too.

In all the stormy weather and with some thaw freeze action, ice has been forming too. Up on Ben Nevis, all the big ridges are well filled in with snow now, the gullies are full and topped with cornices, and there is ice forming on the mid-grade routes as well as the steeper classics. After a few more thaw freeze cycles next week there might be some very nice ice climbing to enjoy soon(ish).

Meanwhile, mixed climbs such as The Great Chimney and Jacknife have been climbed and today there was some rime on high buttresses and plenty of snow on the ledges.

Will it still be good in February? Well, nobody knows, but we have places left on our Performance Winter Climbing Workshop on 22nd and 23rd February so I hope so!