This weekend Wally and myself were delivering our Ben Nevis and Winter skills course over 2 days.
It has been 2 different weather days: yesterday with Wally in rain and very soft snow looking at the basics of winter skills, ice axe arrest, crampons, avalanche awareness, route planning and kit.
Today was much colder with fresh snow falling for most of the day on Ben Nevis. We made good progress up the path with snow falling from about 600m. At about 1100m we put crampons on and the guys got a taste of proper Scottish winter, white out, snow in the face, fresh snow to walk through and strong winds. We made the summit in 4 hours in very poor visibility.
We then made a good descent on the firm snow back to half way in good time before finishing off the weekend with a walk back down the path.
A good introduction for the guys of what winter walking is all about and a lot of skills covered, plus the highest peak in the UK!
