A trip up the Ben!

Looking towards the CIC Ice Falls

Bill and I were out again today with the second half of the 1st Year students from West Highland College. The plan had been to head back up the gondola at Anoach Mor, however on arrival it was on hold due to high winds so rather than hang around and wait to see if it was going to open (the winds were forecast to get stronger) we headed up to the top car park for the north face of Ben Nevis. We then headed up to the CIC hut, stopping every now and then to discuss efficiency in winter and introduce avalanche assessment.

From the CIC hut we headed east to the slopes over looking the hut, here we found some good slopes to look at some ice axe arrests, movement on steeper snow, boot work and some avalanche assessment.

We seemed to be around the freezing level most of the day and there was a strong southerly wind blowing all day along with the odd flurry of snow. There were lots of people out with teams in the Gultch and on the 1st two pitches of waterfall gully.

A great day out and the team did really well for their first day out in winter.