Category Archives: Winter

Winter Skills Day 1, Aonach Mor

The first day of the Winter Skills course with Rob was spent looking at basic axe, boot and crampon skills. We met at Rob’s rented cottage for tea and a look at the weather and avalanche risks before driving over to the Nevis Range ski lifts and taking the Gondola up to get to the snowline quickly. Apart from the dry ski slope all other runs are still closed, but there was a good dusting of fresh snow and a firm base on the leeward eastern slopes.

As the forecast for the rest of the week is for wetter, windier and, generally, more Scottish weather, we seized the opportunity and daggered our way up the steep slope onto the ridge and headed on up to the summit, rewarded with great views of the Ben and Carn Mor Dearg.

After stopping to admire the views and check out the cornices we headed back down towards the gondola

Oh, and if you ever drop your water bottle 30m down a steep snow slope, it’s very handy have a trained Search Dog who’s prepared to act as a retriever… Thanks, Skye.