Saturday's MPS Winter Mountaineering video...

The video can be viewed in HD at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOdfCJFuaDE

Winter ropework and more...

Another very busy day with queues on most routes in Coire an t-Sneachda.
In contrast to yesterday there were light snow flurries with poor visibility until late afternoon when we got some stunning views as the mist cleared.
I was with the the MPS mountaineering group comprising of Anne-Katrine, James, Alex and Robert and we had a great day practising basic winter ropework as we ascended the mixed ground on the side of Fiacail Ridge. Photos above and the MPS Winter Mountaineering video here.
Fi's MPS winter skills group Richard, Robert , Sophie, Elliot and Allee navigated to the summit of Cairngorm and then micro naved into Ciste Mhearid to look at avalanche assessment and to dig emergency snow shelters.
The advanced MPS winter climbing group with Jonathan P had the oppertunity to lead on the Mess of Pottage. They climbed Jacob's Edge with all three students, the two Alex's and Jes leading a pitch each with belays and runners taking quite a bit of digging out. Then they came back down and round and did the first pitch of The Message as they wanted to try some harder mixed, seconding. Before lowering and abbing off to get back to the Cas carpark for 16.00 hrs.
There's more details of the Winter skills group on Fi's blog and here

Great conditions but very very busy!

It was cold clear and calm this morning and the superb climbing conditions together with the AMI AGM meant that almost every route was being climbed!

Rather than mentioning the routes being climbed just click on the pictures including the one of Fiacail Buttress with what looks like climbers starting up the Hurting - could it be Andy Turner on the second ascent. See Andy's blog here!!

Fi, Jonathan P and myself were out with Nottingham Uni's MPS society teaching winter skills, winter mountaineering and winter climbing in almost perfect conditions - except for navigation! Some more photos on Fi's blog here. The only downside was that digging snow anchors on the concrete like neve was really hard work though once dug they were pretty bombproof!

More of the same tomorrow hopefully.

We've still got some places on next weekends Winter Skills course and the following weeks Winter Mountaineering course.

Private guiding and instruction can also still be arranged throughout February and March.

Fresh snow and firming up nicely...

With the colder weather the well built-up snow pack is firming up nicely again and the fresh snow has provide some grip on the icy surface. The weather outlook for the next few days is also looking really promising too!
Fi was out with Alan again in Central gully and found firm snow and ice compared to yesterday. Full details here
I took a wander in this afternoon to check out conditions for Nottingham Uni and met Sandy A and Matt who'd found good ice on the Mirror Direct and nice climbing on Hidden Chimney.
I also met Pat yet again with Geoff who'd found good helpful mixed conditions on Stirling Bomber...
Another team had been over on Deep-cut Chimney on Hells Lum and had similar good conditions with reports of good ice on other routes.
Visibility improved around 15.30 hrs as I entered the corrie hoping for better viz and empty gullies! I got the viz as promised by the sat view and there's now a nice white covering of fresh snow and rime. Empty gullies were another matter and no doubt a few headtorch descents! Many areas were wind scoured but others had a thin covering of fresh that was easily avoided or kicked through on northerly aspects.
I also met Alan H who'd mentioned the Goat-track was well stepped with firm snow which I can confirm and then met some skiers and a boarder who'd decide against skiing a firmish Aladdin's Couloir after climbing it and had descended the bumpy Goat-track instead!
I checked out Spiral, Red and Goat-track gullies and these were good and icy lower down with a bit of rimed ice and mixed at the top before the rock solid stepped finishes onto the plateau - really solid and fun fun fun...

A wet crotched!

See Fi's Cairngorm report from today here
As the weathers to get a lot colder from tomorrow everything will ice up and freeze solid again...

Video clips from La Grave

Final la Grave ice update...

Temperatures have dropped considerably over the past two days with overnight lows of minus 17 and a day time high of minus 6c today at La Grave and minus 9c at Col du Lauteret.

Some of the south facing drainage lines are now starting to reform.

Surprisingly Caturgeas (very thin) and Les Moulins (fatter) are now climbable on the first few pitches - with a health warning! Beware the sun hitting the upper sections of these routes and the danger of falling icicles!

On the southerly aspects most of the other routes around the Grande Clot are still thin smears or broken and I'd be surprised if the cigars reform with the upper pitches now in the sun though you never know!

The routes on the north facing side of the valley continue to improve and we've never seen so many ascents of the Doigt d'Astarothe in the ten yeare we've been coming here.

Unfortunately we now have to go home but we're looking forward to great conditions in the Cairngorms :-) See the Cairngorm SAIS blog here for some stunning photos of the Cairngorms.

La Grave and Alpe d'Huez ice conditions report!

The classic cascade ice routes are now very hard, glassy and brittle due to over a week of thaw due to unseasonably high temperatures and a big the big drop in temps since Wednesday!!

Dinner plating and weird horrible cracking and shattering of the ice at Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday compared to the previous day's first time placements on plastic ice on the the D'Apostrophe in La Grave.

Most of the La Grave ice routes in the UPPER valley north facing aspects are still complete but well hacked and thin on the approaches and are now very brittle due to the temperature drop.

Popular routes being climbed on include the busy Pylon, Valseuses, Goullote and Doigt d'Astorothe, La Croupe de la Pouffiasse and Colere du Ciel though they are all likely to be very busy due to limited choice and suffer from ice fall from parties above!

The LOWER valley routes have either collapsed or are very thin and rotten although it may be worth looking at Cagade and Chacal.. We've left the guidebooks in Scotland and working from memory so apologies for the spelling!!

Most of the La Grave valley south facing routes are now very rotten or history and although some fresh ice will develop on the water courses - with sun now hitting this aspect quite low down, they unlikely to reform or fatten well for this season...

Fresh snow and NW winds

A better less windy and snowy day than forecast. I was expecting wind gusts of up to 60 mph and a lot more snow. It was colder today and yesterdays bullet poof neve had a soft covering of fresh snow but there was far less wind than on Wednesday!!

Kimbyl, Sandy, Rob and I spent the day looking at grade 1 gully ropework and climbed several pitches before we abbed back down off a rock spike and snow bollards.
Tomorrow the guys are out snow holing and navigating with Fi while I pack the ice climbing and ski kit for the Alps... :-)

New year new course

It's been a good start to the New Year with great climbing conditions for our first Winter Mountaineering course of 2011.

On Monday Fi was with Kimbyl, Sandy, Rob and Simon teaching some of the basic Winter Skills such as ice axe braking, step cutting, walking and climbing with crampons.

On Tuesday the guys were with me looking at basic ropework and rock belays at a local crag.

Today we were in a busy Coire an t-Sneachda digging snow belays and punishing our calves while cramponning up the rock hard wind scoured snow onto the plateau.

Unfortunately I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera this morning so I couldn't take many photos - needless to say there were teams of climbers and even queues on most of the classic routes!

Fi was over in Coire Laogh Mor with Jon and his son James looking at basic winter skills - full details on Fi's blog here.

Video from Friday...

The above YouTube video from our last Winter Mountaineering course can be viewed full HD at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ2-1rvueo8