Days out in the British hills in winter require particular techniques
to stay safe. The nature of British weather means that whilst you might
leave the car park in still, bright conditions, you could be returning in
a howling gale and struggling to see through the spindrift. Our Winter
Skills course is designed for people who have done some summer hillwalking
and want to progress into winter mountaineering or sharpen existing
techniques. They are also suitable for people undertaking a first alpine
trip. We also offer Scottish Winter Climbing courses which are a great
introduction to snow and ice climbing in the UK. It's a challenging
business and it's important to get into good habits from the outset.
Finally, our Winter Lead Climbing course looks at all the skills necessary
to climb independently in winter. With that lot ahead of us we're looking
forward to a great Scottish season!
Based
in the Cairngorms, we aim to spend as much time as possible above
900m looking at the necessary skills of winter mountaineering. Each
day starts at 8:00am with a weather and avalanche briefing. This is
reinforced on the way up as we test the stability of the slopes on
which we are operating. Winter navigation is a key theme throughout
the weekend and you will get plenty of chance to learn and practice
techniques such as walking with crampons and ice axe, kicking and
cutting steps and ice axe arrest.
Snow
and ice climbing is one of the most interesting and challenging
aspects of mountaineering and Scotland has some of the finest routes
of their type in Europe. The focus of the course will be on climbing
some great routes and looking at many of the skills that are needed
in the winter climbing environment such as assessing conditions,
climbing technique using ice axe and crampons, winter belaying and
abseiling. This course is suitable for people with no experience of
winter climbing but you will need a basic level of fitness. Based in
the Cairngorms.
This course will look at all
the skills needed to confidently lead winter gully and face climbs
including: equipment, route choice, assessing conditions, climbing
technique, building winter belays and the mental aspects of leading
in winter. You're guaranteed a challenging and absorbing three days
climbing. We will be based in the Cairngorms but may travel to the
West coast and elsewhere depending on conditions.
Dates
07
Price
Accommodation
Previous Experience
£375.00 for 3 days 1:2 instruction
3 nights provided
Multi-pitch rock climbing and/or recent winter walking
