Winter Ml on eBothy Blog

winter wanderings

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

At last, the snow cleared enough to get out of the village and just in time too, as I was booked on to the Winter ML refresher at Glenmore Lodge at the weekend. So I thought I’d bimble up Ben Wyvis on the way across on the Friday. The forecast was for light snow showers and winds gusting to 60mph. Still benign for this area but a bit wilder than anticipated. I hadn’t been up Wyvis in yonks but apparently there’s a spiffing path all the way but from the word go it was slushy snow lower down with the path disappearing once I was out of the trees and I just plodded up squishy snow fields to the foot of the steeps of An Cabar.

where has winter gone

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago there was a massive amount of snow on the hills but with lots of minor highland roads shut due to the amount of the white stuff drifting around, I couldn’t get across to the Cairngorms to meet up with the Orion MC and bag a few climbs in the Northern Corries. Then a week in Devon ensued, which was great and very relaxing and I come back to find all the snow gone! Every last drop! Apparently there’s snow above 1000m in the ‘gorms, no ice and the easier gully lines are being described as “waterfalls”. There’s an international climbing meet at Glenmore Lodge and it’s definitely a case of “you should have been here last week!”. There’s a cold front moving in tonight with the freezing level expected to come down to 750m and the avalanche category for all areas is set to jump from 1 to 3, as the old slush refreezes and new windslab forms on top of it. Not nice. But it’s speculation at the moment. No-one’s sure whether it will be snow or heavy rain on the summits as the timing is uncertain. If it’s heavy rain it could wipe out what’s left of the snow cover. And it’s still February!

studying for winter ml

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

They say Winter ML, ML(W) is the hardest qualification you can go for, especially if you come from a walking background. The years of commitment, skill levels and initiative required are an order of magnitude greater than Summer ML, ML(S), although ML(S) is a tough enough qualification in itself. On the last night of a three day exped into remote mountains, 1am in the morning, howling gale and heavy rain, you can wonder what on earth you’re doing there and being grilled into the bargain by a tough assessor saying “ok, you’re not where you thought you were, you’ve got 5 mins to sort it”. However, move forward a few months, increase the wind speed by 50mph, chuck in blowing snow and rub out the rest of the world in a whiteout and you get the picture for ML(W). Add in the requirement to have winter climbing experience (minimum of 10 Grade I routes and above) and it puts it at the extreme end of most walkers’ experience. It’s a real achievement to aim for and one that will give you fantastic days out and experiences you’ll never forget, while turning you into a competent winter mountaineer. Although it’s not designed to cover graded winter climbing, being a walking award and climbing is out of remit, you still need to demonstrate your comfort level on steep ground, hence the Grade I requirement. The thinking being that a lot of winter walking is on Grade I type ground such as open, steep slopes, although not specifically graded and in really bad weather a Grade I gully could get you out of trouble as a descent route.

snow shelter tips

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Came across this Ray Mears video on building a snow cave. He makes it look easy with a saw. However, chances of carrying a saw as an ML are zero, although there are some folding ones around, though not very big, like this one. I did pick up some more tips from the video though, especially the bit about the cold air sink to allow the colder air to sink to the bottom of the hole while you sleep above it on platforms.

sound winter advice

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Grough has a great article on winter walking. If you’re new to winter, it’s a great starter for ten and if you’re thinking of doing Winter ML, here’s my brain dump from the training. If you want to see how the pros cut steps, watch this. It’s the instructor on my winter ml training:

approaching winter fun

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just upgraded the downstairs dept., which was showing its age. New boots and crampons, perchance a report once I get out and use them, which should be pretty soon as there is heavy snow forecast for most of this week up here. Can’t wat! I also had another look at my old climbing logbooks and realised Gardyloo Gully is actually a Grade II (the IV is for earlier in the season), which feels right, looking back on it. It was my first winter climb so no doubt I was overawed by the surroundings of the north face of Ben Nevis! Add in Observatory Gully (which I’d missed out) and that only leaves a couple of Grade Is to climb this winter and I can think of going for Winter ML assessment. Next winter though. This winter I want to get the navigation just right and maybe get a couple of nights snowholing. Not consecutive mind you. One night is bad enough, without having to simulate an assessment over two nights. I’m booked on the MLTA subsidised winter nav course at Glenmore Lodge next year, which should be good. The instructors there are top notch.

the versatile honey stove

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Now I’m not one to be overly much interested in gear reviews but the blogging world is alight, quite literally, with the new Honey Stove from Backpackinglight. Darren is the current stove king and has been doing a lot of quirky stove videos lately (part one, part two) which you should have a look at if that’s your thing, while Duncan has been going stove crazy on his kitchen table with the thing. Bob@Backpackinglight has also brought out a good video on The Outdoors Station on iTunes. But it suddenly occured to me that this could actually be a great idea as I’m doing the GR221 next year with Penguin, an old friend and we’re planning to bivvy out a couple of nights in the mountains. The Honey, with a Triad stove or Trangia burner and a titanium pot would make a perfect lightweight cooking system at an all in price of 70 quid for the trangia option or just over 80 quid for the triad one. The Jetboil is a superb stove and retails at around 55 quid and a Coleman 250g cannister is about 2.50. So you’re talking about an initial outlay of 60 quid for a Jetboil system. That’s 10 quid cheaper than the Honey + trangia system and 20 quid cheaper than the triad version. But the Jetboil + gas weighs 675g and the Honey + triad + meths would weigh around 550g maybe. So it’s around 100g lighter than the Jetboil and 20 quid dearer. Even if you use the Trangia burner it’s still prolly about 100g lighter than the Jetboil and only 10 quid dearer.