Ice, sun, beer and carrot cake!

Another early start and rock hard bomber snow for Giancarlo and Fiona's climb up Jacob's Ladder.
With rock solid axe placements in the snow-ice until after mid-day, Giancarlo, Fi and I savored and enjoyed the airy exposure at the serac-like cornice for our picnic in the sun.
We then ambled back down to meet Andy enjoying a beer in the sun at the ski are carpark after a round of the Northern Corries.
We finished our alpine-like day with coffee, tea and cakes at the superb Mountain Cafe Aviemore, courtesy of 'G' - now that's the type of guiding work, I really like... ;-)

Lots more photos on our Facebook photo album here and the YouTube video is now here.

Wind scoured and a much better day than expected...

A brighter and less breezy day than on Friday as Thomas and I headed into as almost deserted Coire an t-Sneachda to ice climb.
The avalanche forecast was high but from what I'd seen yesterday many areas were wind scoured and there wasn't as much fresh snow or wind slab as expected.
The initial plan was to climb on a windward facing route to avoid any wind slab. However, contrary to what you'd expect the winds were swirling around the coire and coming from the complete opposite direction and scouring the routes lee route and loading some of the windward routes.
I also new we could easily avoid any cornices and would be totally sheltered in some of  the lee gullies as long as the exit was OK!
Thomas had been on a Winter Skills as well as the advanced Winter Mountaineering course and was wanting to try something a little bit harder and icier today. We headed up to one of the variation routes at the side of the Goat Track.
Unusually there was nobody else about so we decided to climb the main gully which was in excellent condition from top and completely sheltered apart from the odd blast of spin drift.
We topped out onto the plateau which was fine and headed back down via Point 1141 passing some climbers exiting Aladdin's Couloir which was also apparently well scoured and with an easy un-corniced exit.
Some of the other routes such as Crotched and the Trident Gullies do have big fresh cornices as do, Jacob's Ladder and the Windy Col area.
We kept our crampons on until we reached the surprisingly empty car park so the skiing if it was open would have been a wee bit firm!

Cool on the Ridge!

The forecast sounded good and sunny for the west coast so at 6.00 am from Speyside, Don, Gerry and I headed off to the Cuillin Ridge on Skye to climb Sgurr nan Gillean and Am Bhasteir.
There's was a surprising amount of low level snow on the western hills but fortunately much less on Skye.
The peaks were initially in the cloud as we hiked from Sligachan at 08.15. They had more fresh snow on them than expected, though no areas of old icy winter snow remained, as far as I could see.
During the afternoon the cloud lifted with spells of watery sunshine. Later we had some stunning views while heading up from Am Basteir on to the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean.

A bit wintry on the north side of the ridge and especially so in the chimney (understatement!) but fortunately easily cleared by advanced kicking and punching techniques!

The snow was mainly avoidable once on the west ridge crest, where we practised our alpine rope-work on the delightful mainly dry rock. Back down via the never ending tourist route, for 5.00 pm, a fish supper and the drive back to Inverness.

To book a course or arrange guiding on the Skye Cuillin  Ridge see https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/cuillin-ridge-munros

The Braeriach Corries expedition

Glen was interested in some WML navigation coaching and a winter rope work refresher on grade 1 ground. As Talisman takes you further and higher, I suggested we take a trip into Braeriach's Garbh Choirie!
I knew from our recent trips on the Ben MacDui plateau that Braeriach still had full winter cover in the the easier gully lines!!!!
I have to say it was an excellent choice and we had an absolutely fantastic two day expedition on Braeriach with truly alpine conditions.
This gave us a chance to explore some of the totally unique areas that are rarely ever visited due to the effort and their remoteness on our navigation legs and the to climb Great Gully in the wild, remote and truly alpine Garbh Choire Mor.
The rarely visited glaciated hanging coire is the site of the UK's longest lasting semi-permanent snow fields with it's unique rare arctic alpine fauna and flora and can be seen in the HD video below.

The HD YouTube climbing video is now at http://youtu.be/AbXYan_LmmA
Even more photos are on the Talisman Mountaineering Facebook page here including the Capercaillie! Sadly the Capercaillie we've met several times defending it's area on the walk in has been killed by a dog.

See http://www.snh.gov.uk/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/?id=698

Cool or rather freezing on the Cuillin!

With high pressure in the NW we've had a great few days on the Cuillin Ridge with Fi, Jenny, Len and Scott climbing the munro summits of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich, Sgurr Alasdair, Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr nan Eag to name but a few.

A bit grey on Saturday and the weather started to breakdown on Monday but Sunday was stunning.

We awoke to a hard frost (minus 3 at Sligachan) on Sunday and despite the blue skies and sunshine it was bitterly cold with some of the shaded higher tops still icy and frosted that afternoon.

The overnight subzero temps kept the midges away too...!

A few Cuillin Ridge photos and videos later....

Also see the video from last May at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ovWEn-7pM

To book a course or arrange guiding on the Skye Cuillin  Ridge see https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/cuillin-ridge-munros

Last weeks Cuillin Ridge course

A few photos of Ken, Godfrey, Mark, Karin and Fi from last weeks Cuillin Munros and scrambles course. Karin (ML) again came along to shadow, assist Fi and myself and bag a few Cuillin Munros and climbs. Overall we had several days of superb clear weather along with a few very claggy, wet and blustery days where a cool head, carefull foot and map work were essential.
Total reliance on a GPS is dangerous on the Cuillin' and Mark's trusty Garmen was at times more than 500 metres out on the narrow ridges and steep coires due to weak or obscured satellite signals!!!
Everyone bar one, found the hills, steep, exposed and hard work but very very rewarding at the same time and achieved their ambitions.
As a bonus Godfrey, Ken and I managed to avoid the worst of the twenty plus In Pin queues!!
After the course Fi and I stayed on for a day's sunny rock climbing on the south face of Sgurr Alasdair and would have stayed on longer if the midges hadn't arrived with a vengeance on Saturday evening!! See Fi's blog here for more details.

A YouTube video of Ken and Godfrey climbing the Inn Pinn can be viewed here

To book a course or arrange guiding on the Skye Cuillin  Ridge see https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/cuillin-ridge-munros