March 2007 Conditions Reports

18th March 2007
Yesterday turned out not too bad with the rain holding off until early afternoon. Cindy and I climbed Curved Ridge to keep out of the wind and Donald took David up Thomsons Route on Ben Nevis which was blustery but not too bad. There was no snow on the crags on Buachaille Etive Mor but more snow and ice on Number Three Gully Buttress than two weeks ago when Donald climbed the route last. Today, with hail, snow and very strong winds at sea level we all went to the Ice Factor but Dave took Ian and Joe into Coire nan Lochan where they had a good day looking at mountaineering skills. About 20cm of snow had collected in the coire by the afternoon but the wind dropped and it was quite a pleasant walk out. This week will be very cold with the winds slowly easing and further snow showers. Ice will be forming rapidly and there are many ice routes in good shape above 1000m. I'm off to Chamonix for a week of ice climbing though so I will miss the action on Ben Nevis. A week of ski touring in the Ecrins straight after means I will be back at the end of the month when I'm hoping for a classic spring of ice climbing on Ben Nevis ... fingers crossed!

15th March 2007

Heavy rain at all levels last night and this morning with very strong winds finally gave up at about lunchtime today. Chris and I had a wet morning on Beinn na Gucaig above Lundavra Farm doing some navigation training. This ia a great wee hill for getting to grips with contour interpretation, pacing and following bearings. It's also a lovely viewpoint looking down to Mull and up to Ben Nevis. We had some sunshine for a couple of hours this afternoon which showed a light dusting of snow above 1100m. Dave took Paul and David up Stob Coire nan Lochan for a refresher on winter skills where there is good snow cover in the bigger gullies. The temperature is due to drop a bit more tonight but it will still be stormy through the weekend.

14th March 2007
Warmer again today with steady drizzle and strong SW winds. On Ben Nevis Chris and I looked at navigation, self arrest, snow stability and snow anchors - good use of a poor day. The mist was thick in the morning and there wasn't much of the "Ben Nevis Experience" but the snow is very plentiful up there. In fact there is a lot of snow and ice on the faces and buttresses as well so when it cools down again (tomorrow afternoon) we could see a very rapid return to great climbing conditions. A big freeze now would bring into condition a lot of big climbs and just now there is loads of ice high on Ben Nevis (Smiths Route, Indicator Wall, Point Five Gully, Two Step Corner etc.).

13th March 2007

Slightly warmer again today but quite dry and less wind. Chris and I enjoyed the Aonach Eagach which had a little wet snow on the first few steps but was dry for the pinnacles. We descended quickly by heading straight for Glen Coe from the end Munro. Descending by Clachaig Gully is to be avoided at all costs, heading towards the Pap of Glen Coe is a great way off but for a quick (if unrelenting) descent go straight for the Clachaig road junction with the A82. Steep scree is followed by grass and a wee path for the bottom third. Above 900m there is good snow cover in Glen Coe - Broad Gully, Boomerang Gully, NC Gully, Y Gully and the likes are all complete with soft wet snow and given a good freeze we could even see SC Gully, Twisting Gully and others coming in to condition.

12th March 2007
It was a very stormy and wet weekend with not much fun to be had in the hills. It did cool down though during Sunday night and this morning we had fresh, wet snow down to 700m. It wasn't very cold and the snow was sluffing off quite easily with big wheels rolling down the slopes. I went up the N Face of Stob Coire nan Lochan with Chris which was very interesting choosing the safest route to avoid the avalanche hazard. We dropped down to the col before Bidean nam Bian and turned right into Coire nam Beith. A fantastic traverse over the top of the crags of the W Face of Aonach Dubh brought us back to Coire nan Lochan and down to Glen Coe. A really interesting circuit on which we saw nobody despite the crowds in the coire itself.

8th March 2007
The mixed (read stormy) weather has continued. Yesterday was a bit nicer and today it did stay dry for substantial parts of the afternoon but the wind has always been with us and the freezing level still jumping around. Consequently snow has been forced onto the faces and is being stuck in place. The Orion Face had continuous looking lines today and there were teams on Observatory Buttress and Point Blank. With the rapid thaw freezes with lots of fresh snow there is quite a high risk of avalanches and lots of debris around especially in Observatory Gully. Cold again tomorrow with more snow then a miserable weekend with very strong warm winds, +4 on the tops and torential rain!

6th March 2007

It's been pretty wild and windy over the last couple of days with heavy showers, longer periods of rain and the freezing level going up and down like a yoyo! All this is good news for the rest of the season but not great if you want to get out onto the ice just now. At the least it would be challenging and uncomfortable, at the worst it would be quite unsafe due to the avalanche hazard. Buttresses are best just now and Donald, Vince, Mike and Euan have been enjoying two great ridges - North Buttress of Stob Ban yesterday and Curved Ridge today. The ice is still there and we might even get some big face routes like Orion Direct coming in over the next couple of weeks if this mixed weather continues and it gets cold. Just take care right now!

5th March 2007

4th March 2007

With the finale of the Mountain Festival going on we've been pretty busy here in the Outdoor Capital. Timmy O'Neill bounced in with huge energy and big stories, and The Return of the Icemen was a phenomenal night. Hamish, Yvon and Jimmy were brilliant - still driven and inspired by climbing. It was a pleasure to see and hear the tales of the original Scottish ice climbers. Thursday and Friday turned out very nice last week with lots of ice routes being climbed and new snow falling down to 600m. Yesterday on Ben Nevis Clare and I found quite deep accumulations and general cover of about 30cm above 900m in Coire na Ciste. There was a steady breeze blowing the snow over the plateau and loading the slopes very quickly and with the temperature rising it was not surprising to see some avalanche activity. We climbed The White Line and kept well away from any avalanche potential but had to endure some sizeable spindrift flows. Today was very windy but dry and cooler so we climbed North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor which stayed quite well sheltered in the SE wind. With the wind rising though we abseiled off (as we thought we would from the start) to stay down out of the wind. The windy and snowy theme will carry on this week with significant depths of fresh snow being forecast.