A Happy New Year, Its been a busy start to 2025 and it started with some much needed winter arriving in earnest, from almost no snow to speak of on New Years Eve it arrived on New Years day and has remained cold since with some very cold and snowy days. As ever with a Scottish winter its never straightforward and just as you get settled into a nice rhythm of cold days it turns mild. As I type the week ahead (12th Jan) has done just that although I hope just as quickly it will come arctic again.
We started the New Year delivering a course for a keen team from Bristol University followed by returning client Campbell who joined us in the Cairngorms for a day on the Fiachaill Ridge in some very wintry weather.
We also the first of our Nevis Skills and Summit weekends passed with some fine winter weather. A day of skills on Aonach Mor was followed by putting it all into practice on Big Ben. Josh and Ellie summited in some fine weather with some good summit views. We also had Toby who joined us for a day on the Ben heading out with Nick for a journey up Ledge Route.
We have also had some fun days out ourselves. Jo and I even managed a ski to the local shops with Inverness under a thick blanket of snow for some time. We did also manage a particularly good ski day taking a route from the ski area car park up towards Lurchers to gain the plateau and around with a nice descent into Coire Domhain. A skin up the back of Cairngorms to the summit and then down from there. Mystifying as to why the ski area has been claiming lack of snow for the reason not to open the upper runs which where in great shape with plenty of snow. I suspect other factors are at play. Jo and I also had a look at some low level ice with what seems our annual trip up the burn that descends under the lift line at the Glencoe Mountain Resort along with Andy for some fun icy steps. Water ice and ‘cascade’ style climbing is a bit rare in the Highlands as we dont get the prolonged sub zero temperatures like Norway or the higher Alps but it was starting to freeze up. Jo and I took a look at the route Oui Oui which forms at Creag Dubh near Newton More on the 11th and almost got it. After the coldest night recorded in some years at -18 we thought this would be as good a chance as any and was almost there but was pretty steep and still running a bit. The lower easier pitch provided some fun but the hanging daggers that threaten the upper pitch and also gaps turned us away. Simon and I also had a chilly day in the Cairrngorms scratching about.
The conditions have been very good on the whole with plenty of freezing temps and also some good snowfall perhaps more so in the Cairngorms which has had some good amounts where in comparison the West being Ben Nevis and Glencoe have had quite a bit less. There has been some low temps which has started to create some good water ice freezing up in places. But still not quite the amounts of snow combined with some freeze thaw cycles to create a more reliable base to the snowpack and also develop the ice creating conditions needed in the mountains. Ive seen various pictures of the Northern side of Ben Nevis and I cant think I have seen a time where so little snow was in the major gullies mid January even the relativley shallower gullies in the Northern Corries seem a bit low.
We have a very busy few weeks ahead with winter courses and hopefully the upcoming warming wont be to damaging and will be followed up with some more cold periods.
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