Monday 29 February 2016

First Time Walking on the White Stuff

Sunday
With such fine weather on my arrival day on Saturday, I was crying inside when the forecast for Sunday was telling a similar story. All I had to do was get to the Ballachulish Hotel for 6pm for my course briefing. Shame I couldn't just go up one of the hills in bright sunshine and pristine conditions.

So I sat there in the breakfast room Sunday morning enjoying a full Scottish fry-up thinking about a very relaxed day, when the host asked one of the other guests what he was planning for the day. He was obviously a fairly seasoned winter mountaineer and wanted to do a gully on Ben Nevis. Long story short, our host arranged for him to take me along. NICE!!!

So I had a private instructor for the day and what a blast we had. Ed lent me his spare ice axe and crampons and after a quick equipment check he drove to the North Face car park and we walked the long way in to CIC hut. He was a really relaxed guy and we were chatting about this and that enjoying the fabulous weather.

Looking back down to Fort William
Ed leads the way to CIC hut
Getting wintry
He was fully aware that I was a total newbie here. Never used ice axe and crampons before. After all, that was what I was here for with the course.
Being a Mountain Leader and working towards his Winter Mountain Leader award, he got at least a nice practice day out of it. I was ever so grateful he took me along.
He taught me how to walk in crampons on the last bit up to CIC hut. From there we headed up No. 3 Gully which the book said was a Grade 1 route. Cool.
The first bit was fairly easy and I learned a lot as we slowly made our way up. Halfway it got fairly steep so we could only ram our heavy cramponed boots into the snow to create footsteps and then move one step further up.
The obvious notch in the middle of the ridge is our No.3 Gully
Of course my foot chose this moment to cramp, but Ed had shown me how to create a safe stand before. That's what I did so I could relax my foot until the cramp was over.
Up and up we went, steeper and steeper it got. Until about 5 metres below the top of the gully it became not only very very steep (prob about 60 degrees) but also the snow wasn't as solid up here. I trusted Ed as he made a judgement call and decided we back out.
Climbing down is something you only do when absolutely necessary. It is awkward and very uncomfortable. But I was way out of my comfort zone already, hanging there having to trust the snowy steps I had just created and the ice axe rammed into the snow. No rope, no anchor, no safety.

Step by cautious step we made our backwards way down and eventually reached CIC hut again. We were quite late and hurried down the hill. Ed used his head torch the last bit as it was getting dark.

Same Fort William, but at dusk
I phoned the course chief about my very late arrival and Ed dropped me off at the hotel. Baptised by fire I was totally knackered after my first and probably a wee bit too hard winter mountain day.
Met my Kilimanjaro guide from a year ago as I lugged my stuff into the lobby. We were both a bit surprised to see each other here.
Met the group and our instructor briefly and off to dinner we went. Ah. Stress. Nice people all around and I only had a very quick shower before I slumped into my bed and fell asleep immediately.

Monday
My first day of the Introductory Course started with breakfast at 7am. I woke up still knackered as hell, but none of my muscles were aching yet. Well done on my fitness prep, ha.
Our instructor gave us lots of useful advise about what and how we should pack and off we went to the Glencoe Ski Resort. Of course the weather was back to a more typical Scottish one with low clouds, high winds and a nice drizzle of rain/snow.

Went up on the chair lift and spend all day learning getting used to how and when to access stuff from our packs, how and when I can eat something (there's no such thing as a lunch break), how to stop when sliding down the slope and how to walk in crampons. Our instructor is awesome, very much enjoying teaching us newies and demonstrating the different techniques.

How to best pack all of this

Pretty good at stopping a slide

Bad weather? Naaaaah.
I was very surprised how little the strong winds and icy snow particles bothered me. I was warm and snug with the hood up and goggles on. Bring it on Scottish weather. No problemo!!! None of the others had any issues with that, too.
Normal Scottish weather
Went down after a fairly easy going day, but I started to feel my thighs and calves now. After the debrief a very needed shower and finally some time to post a few pictures.

I apologise for the lack thereof... there was simply no time and opportunity to take more. Not when I'm hanging on for dear life (Sunday) or being blown left and right by the wind (Monday)

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