Three days of quality winter skills activity under blue skies on
pristine snow transmogrified into the usual ‘improvise and adapt’ kind of trip
so common at this time of year in the Scottish mountains!
Steall Waterfall & Water of Nevis
Still, Karthik’s first venture into the winter hills got him to the top
of Ben Nevis, an exploration of Glen Nevis and a few hours digging snow anchors
whilst battling ferocious snow showers!
Upper Glen Nevis
Strong winds and driving rain prevented us from going high on the first
day, Indeed, they almost prevented us
from going anywhere! In the event, the
weather relented just sufficiently to allow us to venture up Glen Nevis to
inspect the Steall waterfall and for Karthik to practice his trapeze skills on
the wire bridge.
Steall Bridge
Day 2 saw us climbing up the tourist path (currently undergoing some
welcome repair work) on to a cloud-girt Ben Nevis. We entered the cloud and snow about half-way
up and it was full white-out conditions on top.
Approaching Half-way!
Some of the summit navigation pillars were buried making progress difficult
for some, but the wind was mercifully light which kept the wind-chill at bay.
Below the Snowline...
The Easter holidays ensured a busier than usual mountain for the time of
year and the summit was anything but deserted.
So following the obligatory photo shoot, we headed down and were greeted
with a glint of afternoon sunlight when we emerged below the clouds.
Glen Nevis
Seven hours was a creditable time under the
conditions and Karthik got to try crampons for the first time, so we got at least
one winter tick in!
...And Above It!
Day 3 heralded the onset of frequent blustery snow showers on Aonach Mor
which led the Nevis Range ski complex to review operations throughout the
morning.
Improvising and Adapting!
We took the gondola up to 650m and traversed to the nearest useable
snowfield where we managed to run through some winter skills in between the
showers. Mindful that the gondola might
stop at any time, we did what we had to and then escaped down before things got
too bad.
And Just Plain Suffering!
So, not quite the planned 3-day package, but we managed to tick all the
boxes and went home happy to await the on-set of spring……..
Subscribe To This Feed
No comments:
Post a Comment