New Week, New Course, New Group

Had two very relaxed days on Saturday and Sunday. Went into Fort William for some outdoor shopping and walked away with a new pair of waterproofs and some smaller stuff. Not too bad. Weather was fantastic and I regretted not being on a hill a little bit. But after last week, I really needed the rest.
Did literally nothing on Sunday just hanging around watching Netflix and studying for my ITIL exams.

Morning view from the bridge by the hotel

Sunday night I met my group and course instructors for next week. I'm no longer one of the newbies and it feels good!!! Like back in school when you got to second grade, ha!

Today then we had a bit of a talk in the morning about our ambitions and objectives for this week. It can really get quite bespoke as the instructor student ration will drop to 1:2 from Weds on. Cool.
Thought I'd meet a lot of pros in this course, but people have very different backgrounds and skills so I don't really feel like the least experienced in the group.

In superb conditions we drove to Fort William and took the Aonach Mor Gondola to get onto snow quickly. Did some ice axe arrest practice as well as walking in crampons. It certainly helped that I had just done my intro course and I got complimented on my technique by both instructors, ha!!!

Looking back down to Fort William

The Grey Corries in white

On the top of Aonach an Nid we enjoyed fantastic views over Fort William and the Grey Corries as we did some belay practice before we went down again and back.

Had a fantastic day (without a cramp again, yeah). Bit of a shame we had to do the skills recap day today as the weather will turn over night with a front moving through. I'm still happy and looking forward to the next four days!