1st February 2014 - Ben Nevis in poor conditions

Stunning views this morning down the Glen towards Stob Ban

The low level of snow made everything very pretty. The wind made things a little different...

Things began to deteriorate from the Half way Lochan on-wards

Goggles on and a mix of spin drift and fresh snow met us on the upper half of the mountain

Avalanche debris and a wall of wind slab (complete with cornice) at the Red Burn

On the retreat: Our knee deep footprints were covered over in less than 20 minutes...

It has been a while since I updated this blog unfortunately, but I have been pretty busy working at Outward Bound and Kilbowie, as well as plenty of guiding in the months leading up to Christmas. Since then, it's been pretty quiet. Which is no bad thing considering the horrific weather and snow pack conditions we have been experiencing.

Today, however, I was out making an attempt on the Ben with a strong team from Leeds. They drove up yesterday having planned this trip well in advance, so were pretty keen to get up there and claim their prize. However, conditions were pretty horrendous, with High Risk avalanche warnings on the SAIS forecast from West to North East slopes above 750m - precisely on our path up the zig-zags. Add to this high winds (increasing through the day) and a rising temperature and it was definitely a day for gut feeling judgements and correct decisions.

We made excellent time up from Achintee, moving fast and enjoying the stunning views of the winter wonderland that had appeared over night. As we got round to Windy Corner, however, the winds started picking up and along by Halfway Lochan we decided to goggle up. Conditions were really starting to look grim, visibility was deteriorating and the wind was increasing rapidly but we decided to go and have a gander up to the Red Burn. We crossed some worryingly unstable patches of snow on the footpath, and had a wee look at the snow pack to see what was going on. As we approached the Red Burn visibility was almost zero, and I was alarmed to see what appeared to be some serious avalanche debris in the gully. Suddenly the cloud cleared and a wall of windslab topped with a rather large cornice loomed out of the cloud. I had a quick look at it but decided it was too unstable to risk climbing up or skirting round, and so we decided to head back down, defeated by the mountain. Our footprints (often knee deep and in places thigh deep) from twenty minutes previous were now completely covered over, an indication of how much snow was falling or being deposited in the area at that time.

On the way down we met some other teams heading up, some well equipped some not so well equipped but for the most part some good decisions were made by the people who were out in the area.

All in all it was a great day out regardless of how far we got, it was good craic and the lads seemed to enjoy their day - hopefully they can make it up again this winter for a more successful attempt! Thanks guys.

Today I was working for the Highland Mountain Company.