Woke up this morning to fresh snow down to about 500m and a freeze to about the same level overnight.  A last minute change of plan took us to Dorsal Arete with the Chimney finish.  Lochan was feeling the part today with fresh snow and sunshine.  There is good old snow about and exposed turf was firming up though anything deep was not frozen, cold again tonight though so may improve.  The steep mixed routes were looking the part also, Unicorn and Inclination looked white, Scabbard also…. not sure about how well frozen though.

Some fresh snow today on the Ben above 900m.  Blowing in on the face but not amounting to much, everything feeling a lot more like winter again though!

Some ice still about, we did Smiths Route which was really good, first pitch was thin and a bit hollow in places, second pitch was all good and only a little wet….. and no others on it.

Good Friday and Tower Scoop looked good.  Think I saw people on Comb Gully and No.3 Gully Buttress also.

Some fresh snow today on the Ben above 900m.  Blowing in on the face but not amounting to much, everything feeling a lot more like winter again though!

Some ice still about, we did Smiths Route which was really good, first pitch was thin and a bit hollow in places, second pitch was all good and only a little wet….. and no others on it.

Good Friday and Tower Scoop looked good.  Think I saw people on Comb Gully and No.3 Gully Buttress also.

Some fresh snow today on the Ben above 900m.  Blowing in on the face but not amounting to much, everything feeling a lot more like winter again though!

Some ice still about, we did Smiths Route which was really good, first pitch was thin and a bit hollow in places, second pitch was all good and only a little wet

Not much snow left on Helvellyn after a warm week and some rain.  Still some snow on the headwall area but not much left in the gullies or on the ridges.

The snow that was there was solid and worked well for the mountaineering course I was running today.

Looking about there didn’t seem to be much snow cover left at all on the other main Fells.

After a drop in temperature last night and some fresh snow on the tops things were feeling much more like winter today.  The old snow was well frozen and there was only a little fresh accumulation which didn’t give any problems.

 Loads of people heading up high on the Ben and a lot of the high ice routes were still looking surprisingly good, we were up in the Ciste and routes like the Central Routes, The Gift, North Gully, Wendigo, Green Gully, No.3 Gully Buttress to name a few were all climbed.  Some mixed possible also, folks on Gargoyle Wall….

We did Central Left which was in really good condition and a great way to finish the course with Jim.

Cheers Jim and Mick for a great course!

After a day of rope work training and a wet weather big boot climb on the Gutter yesterday on Polldubh Crags we decided to head east today to the Cairngorms.

We didn’t totally get the sun we were looking for over there and it was hard to believe the lack of snow cover.  We were able to have a good day none the less on Jacobs Ladder, Jim and Mick led the route today as their first lead.  There was usable snow and some ice about to look at screws etc.  The route had a few gaps and was getting to the point were loose rock will be an issue.  The others had a similar day on the ground to the right of the Goat Track and said it was all good at about I/II.  Apart from these 2 options it is fair to say that nothing else was climbable, that said a team did make an ascent of something in the White Magic area (not joking…!)

Probably a better chance of something steeper high up on the Ben still or on Aonach Mor, however high winds will be the problem for the Gondola and climbing up high, possibly some fresh snow due tomorrow also.

Things feeling fairly damp on the Scottish West currently.  We had an instructional day in the Ice Factor yesterday which worked well.  Today we rapped up in Gore-tex and headed to Corrie Lochan.  Lots of people out despite the weather, mainly walking and skills courses.  We climbed a busy Dorsal Arete which gave a good adventure in the wind and rain!! Still fairly good snow cover on the arete with useful snow.  Easy Gullies are still complete but there is a lot of evidence of rock fall about and Forked Gully has had a big wet slide come down.

Looking better for Thursday and Friday with a cold weekend forecast…

After a hard freeze and some fresh snow the mixed routes on Helvellyn came into great condition.  Any old snow was solid, there was ice in places, and the turf was bomber…

Today was day 2 of a weekend climbing course and after learning about leading yesterday the guys were keen to find their limit on something steeper.  Tom took Gian and Jamie up V-Corner which was in good condition.  I climbed with Nilesh and Gareth who liked the look of one of the harder routes on the crag, Rape and Pillage IV/6, so we went for that.  The route was in good condition, turf solid etc.  This was a great effort for the guys as their first mixed route.

Thanks to the team for a great weekend!

Back in the Lakes today and the plan was to have a look over some leading.  Finding snow was going to be the first challenge, so we put all our money on Custs Gully.

A fresh dusting of snow and drop in temperature to below freezing gave the day a wintry feel, but there was still a lot of water running off the crags after overnight rain and a general lack of old snow about.

Pulling around into Custs I was surprised by the amount of snow still in it, there was a few gaps and mixed steps but it was generally all good, even some ice to place screws in and make some threads…

The other main Gullies were not complete but there was still some old ice about.