The mountains are beautiful places to my mind, and to lots of other people, but although we are in the middle of summer right now, I think they are at their most stunning with a hefty dump of snow on them. At the same time though when they look at their most beautiful however, they can also be extremely dangerous. A bit like Anna Nicole Smith according to one of my more hollywood familiar walking friends…….
To walk the hills in winter you need a specific set of skills, and although I often gazed about winter hills with a look of hunger, I never felt I had the skills to ensure I could get on and off them with any safety. As a result I decided to get some training with the good folk from the national mountain centre at Plas Y Brenin and signed up for their introduction to Winter mountaineering course.
The course was held on the West coast of Scotland, we were based at Ballahulish, in between Glen Coe and the Ben Nevis range. This gave us a wide range of hills to wander up, depending on which ones had the most snow. In particular, I most enjoyed heading up Bucaille Etive Mor, I think the stand out hill in Glen Coe, guarding the entrance from Ranoch Moor.
The main basics are snow skills, crampon usage and Ice Axe arrest. Although you never want to have to use an ice axe arrest in anger, it was the most fun part of the course as this video hopefully shows!
