by Simon Grogan

It was on a typical grey winter’s day that I drove up to Scotland for a 5-day winter mountaineering course with Orange Mountaineering.

The weather had been quite mild over the last week, but it wasn’t until I was gazing at the mountains from the drive over Rannoch Moor that I could appreciate just how mild it had been; the mountains were all but stripped of snow, with only patchwork remaining! As I continued towards Fort William, I pondered how the week’s course would work out if there was as little snow as there appeared.

The following day I had a spare day before starting the course. I took myself up Stob Bàn in the Mamores which was one of many Scottish peaks I had yet to visit. I thought that at around 1000m altitude it would give a good indication of the snow cover and, as yesterday had indicated, there was very little, other than in the gullies, which were holding onto a covering of soft melting snow. It was, however, a pleasant hike and a good opportunity to find my hill legs again, which tend to get more time off than I would like over the winter months.

Day 1
Monday brought the start of our course. We met as a group in Glen Coe and, after a brief meeting and discussion, we made our way to the ski area as that was deemed a good option for finding some snow. We took the chair lift up to the higher slopes just as a squally shower pushed through and gave us a somewhat wild ride. After disembarking, we split into our separate groups, one for winter skills and the other for mountaineers. There was indeed snow in the ski area and, whilst it was soft and not ideal to practise all skills, it was a good place to learn how to build snow anchors. We practised making bucket seats, snow bollards, and buried axes. It was impressive to see how much some of the anchors could hold; with four of us pulling hard on the rope, we failed to move the ice axe anchored in the snow slope above us. We also hiked up to the nearby peak, which was a good chance to refamiliarize ourselves with wearing crampons and using ice axes. We finished the day in the cafe and discussed tomorrow’s plans; the forecast wasn’t ideal, and an ascent of Ben Nevis was decided as the best option.

Day 2
Tuesday began at the North Face car park, and we made an early start up the track towards the CIC hut. We set out in lashings of wind-driven rain, but before too long it became more gentle and thankfully petered out during the morning. After a brief break outside the hut we headed for Number 4 gully, the easiest of the north face routes. The gully itself is a simple but steep snow slope that at grade I is a good introduction to graded winter routes. We were pleased to find a section of ice on the sidewall partway up, as this gave an opportunity to practise placing ice screws and creating an Abalakov thread, which is a very handy ice anchor and a good option to abseil off without leaving behind expensive ice screws. We pitched the final steepening to the top of the gully with two of us belaying from a bucket seat and the other two leading up the snow slope. The snow slope had been quite sheltered, and we topped out into strong winds and occasional icy showers. We didn’t mess around for long and got on with our descent on the tourist.

Day 3
Wednesday had the worst forecast of the week, and our team went dry tooling as a way to stay out of the battering wind and rain. We headed to Onich slabs, a designated dry tooling crag, where the instructors set up a top rope for us. We assembled a variety of axes of varying technical capabilities and talked about their suitability. My axes were the least technical of the assembled bunch but still up to the task, and we had the opportunity to swap around and see how the other tools felt. It was quite odd compared to climbing; a good hook or torque with the axes felt very secure, but I found that poor placements of either my crampons or axes could suddenly pop off the hold and could be quite disconcerting! I was glad to be on a top rope. It was, however, fantastic to see just what it’s possible to climb with average axes and mountaineering crampons, and it would certainly raise my confidence in taking on mixed climbs. After our climbing, we retired to a cafe to plan the following day; the forecast for the next two days was better, and there was a good amount of snow due overnight both days. We made plans to head a bit further out to do the East Ridge of Beinn a’ Chaorainn.

Day 4
We started Thursday’s route up Beinn a’ Chaorainn to a wonderful winter snowscape, with fresh snow lying to lower levels and hanging in the trees. It was good to have some winter at last! We headed up along a pleasant forest track before turning off to make for the east ridge. The ridge itself is a grade II route, although we took a few harder lines to make it around grade III. Luca, our instructor, led Nick and me along several pitches, while Jane and Maddy swapped leads with their instructor Rachael overseeing them. We all had a cracking day, and although the walk down was a bit laborious, we finished keen for another day in the winter hills.

Day 5
Friday marked the final day of our course, and we headed back to Glen Coe for an early start up Dorsal Arete on Stob Coire Nan Lochain. The walk-in was hard going, with deep powder lying over hidden rocks. Despite less-than-ideal conditions, we arrived at the base of the route before any other teams. Luca again led the way for Nick and me, and we climbed along the route, with large deposits of soft snow sitting on top of unfrozen turf. Not the most ideal conditions, but certainly very wintry in appearance and very atmospheric. The weather was slowly deteriorating with increasingly large clouds of spindrift blowing around, our route was mostly protected so far but I was glad we weren’t just starting it. The crux section, the arete, was great fun and has plenty of exposure; it’s quickly done with though, and then it’s easy climbing on the last pitch to the top. On topping out we were greeted with strong winds and plentiful spindrift, so we progressed as quickly as we could, back to lower slopes. The conditions eased before too long, and we were back to slogging through the deep powder to the car.

Despite the conditions being less than ideal, we managed to have a very full week, and I built confidence and learned new skills to help me get into taking on graded winter routes. I’m keenly looking forward to next winter season and being able to get out and do more in the winter mountains. Big thanks to our instructors, Rachael, Luca, and Simon, and also to the AAC(UK) for organising the course and the kind provision of grants towards the cost.

Dry tooling at Onich Slabs; Jane placing an ice screw by Rachael Crewesmith; Bucket seats and buried axe anchors at Glen Coe by Simon Grogan

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