Just back from Scotland having had an epic journey back it took 2 ½ hours to get from the Forth bridge to Edinburgh Airport so missed my flight. The lovely people at Easy Jet looked after me and sent me home via Amsterdam any way on to the mountaineering. Conditions have been variable as usual in Scotland with some great conditions at times, I met up with Mark Dearnley in Fort William and headed up the Ben on Thursday, as usual we had lots of plans but the weather was a really wild by the time we reached the hut so we headed into Coire Na Ciste and climbed Number 3 gully buttress which was in great condition with fantastic Neve all the way. Friday was so bad we decide discretion was the better part of valour so Mark headed home and I went over to Aviemore to work on the guides tests. We started with the induction course for those looking to join the guides training scheme I headed into the Northern Coires and climbed Pot of Gold and Opening break in good wintry conditions. Sunday was the start of the test we started with general mountaineering skills in and around the Northern Coires then navigated across the Cairngorm Plateau to a night in a snow hole then night navigation and more mountaineering before heading back to the valley on Monday afternoon. Tuesday was the personal climbing mixed day which was in the Northern Cairngorms, we climbed Honey Pot and The Message both in great condition. Wed was the ice climbing day, we headed up the Ben with rain wind and a high avalanche risk the troops chose probably the safest bit of ice on the Ben that day Ruddy Rocks below the first platform on NE buttress. On a good day this would have been a great route but was a good adventure in the conditions.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 |