ITACE 2014 Antarctic training

 Testing Terra Nova's new Polar Storm tent

I've just run five days of Scottish based training for the Imperial Trans Antarctic Centenary Expedition which aims to make a complete crossing of the continent later in the year. They'll also be attempting a crossing of the Greenland icecap in May as part of their training. www.south2014.com

The week focused on the technical as well as the physical and mental skills required to operate safely in these enviroments.

We were joined by photographer John Pickles who took these stunning black and white images. More of his work can be seen on his website at www.johnpicklesphotography.com.

 Summit of Cairngorm

 Big loads and long days on the Cairngorm plateau

 A spot of snow holing to work on the personal admin

 Testing the expeditions Jottnar kit

Wee Buchaille

A spot of Munro bagging in the white room

Using the stalkers track from Glen Feshie

The summit of Mullach Clach a' Bhlair!

Scottish Winter Mountaineering & Climbing courses

Learning to lead on Golden Oldie (II) on the West Face of Aonach Mor

A few photos to whet the appetite for the forthcoming Scottish winter season. I'll be working my 9th season running winter mountaineering and climbing courses from Fort William and Aviemore. Please get in touch if you fancy a wee adventure...

Enjoying the delights of a bucket seat belay!

Bad weather arriving on the Cairngorm plateau

The 4 star Curved Ridge (II) in Glencoe

Digging snow holes on a character building day!

Steep mixed climbing on Fingers Ridge (IV 4) in Coire an t-Sneachda

Ski mountaineering on Ben Nevis prior to a 1300m descent

 Topping out on Green Gable in the Lake District

Enjoying the sunshine on a classic mountaineering day

Curved Ridge (II) under heavy snow conditions and a blue sky

The stunning Smith's Route (V 5) on Ben Nevis

Descending to Fort William after a big day on the Ben

Busy on the Ben - Tower Ridge

 A busy Orion Face

 

 An even busier Point 5 Gully - 90 mins waiting time!

 

Observatory Gully

 Jude enjoying perfect neve on Tower Ridge IV 3

 French team on the Eastern Traverse

 Max Hunter solo on the Eastern Traverse

  

Team heading into Tower Gully

 

  Max Hunter topping out on Tower Ridge

Having lunch on top of Great Tower - Photo from Max Hunter

Jude approaching the crux of Tower Ridge - Tower Gap

 

Prayer flags on the summit trig point

 

Walking off in the sun

Crowberry Gully IV 4

 Great ice on the Water Slide

 

Entering the depths of Crowberry Gully

 

 Great stepped neve & ice in Crowberry Gully

 

 Stunning evening light from the summit of the Buachaille

 Original design for a snow bollard! :)

Advanced winter skills captured on film!

Some more footage from the team at GCUMC and their Advanced Winter Skills course in January.

Mountain Rescue Training

 Stunning conditions in the Cairngorms

This weekend I've been running some winter training for members of Langdale & Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team. They braved the journey north to the Cairngorms leaving behind a very snowy Lake District!

However by the time they got home on Sunday night a major thaw meant that a water rescue capability was probably more use! Saturday gave us blue skies but a strong wind that was moving plenty of fresh snow around. We spent a considerable amount of time looking at avalanche avoidance and rescue strategies. There was multiple layers of windslab in sheltered locations and we were able to trigger a number of small slides. We were also able to look at winter belays and emeregncy snow shelters

Saturday evening was the Association of Mountaineering Instructors AGM at Glenmore Lodge which proved very successful with 100% support for a number of measures to increase our professionalism.

The snow pack was much reduced on Sunday with the temperature having risen above the summits during the night but the remaining snow had refrozen giving us a very fast paced ice axe arrest session. A wee bit of winter navigation and goggles were donned for a trip to the top of Cairngorm in pleasantly full on conditions!

Working an avalanche probe line

 Plenty of snow being moved around

Your stereotypical Mountain Rescuer!!

Powder day on Curved Ridge

Approaching Curved Ridge in alpine conditions

 A plastered Buchaille under a blue sky

 Climbing the initial ice fall into Crowberry Basin

Swimming up Crowberry Basin

Sarah enjoying the mixed climbing

 Tricky mixed climbing to regain the ridge

Crowberry Gap in a developing white out