Guide Training and a little more…
This is a phenomenal way to start a winter seasons guiding in Scotland. For a few seasons now I’ve had the privilege (and pressure) of directing the BMG winter training course and this year kept my run of luck with conditions and weather, allowing us to prepare the candidates for their exam towards the end of the winter. As always the trainee guides were of the highest calibre as well as fantastic and reassuring company over 5 long days in the mountains. Our new association training director, Ade Nelhams (also director of the famous ISM…International School of Mountaineering) joined myself and regular partner Paul Warnock for the course.
Busy Tower Ridge
Our small team tallied Green Gully, Central Gully Rhand, Thompson’s Route and Tower Ridge ( up and down! ) on Ben Nevis, Crest Route, Scabbard Chimney, Twisting Grooves in SCNL, and D Gully Buttress, Naithsmith’s Route and North Buttress with lots of laps down Curved ridge in between on the Buachaille too.
The Eastern Traverse
John Crook scudding up Green Gully in v good conditions
The well timed finish coincided with a savage period of rain over the summits which decimated the promising conditions for a few days. So conditions are now building again from square one. Apart from scudding up NE Butrress on Ben Nevis this week during a colder, snowy part of the current oscillating storm cycles…summit at 10 30 and a challenging descent off the plateau in the winds that were averaging 90/100mph around midday…my work has involved a Winter ML review and a day with Avalanche forecaster Mark Diggins.
