I arrived in Scotland on Sunday under fabulous blue skies and cold conditions. Not much snow around except for hard old stuff up high. Luckily the forecast for Monday was more of the same and as I was sending Ruth out to work I could head out to play with Blair Fyffe. As buttresses were going to be black, mixed climbing was off the agenda so we decided to head up the Ben for a sociable day out climbing some not too tricky ice. We headed up a route on the side of Tower Ridge called The Gutter - very pleasant and good ice too. Topped out almost at the top of Tower Ridge - bagged the summit enjoyed the incredible views, and then popped back down and nipped up Central Right-hand to finish off our day.
Other teams were on Smiths Route amongst other things and everyone looked like they were having a great day.
Of course these lovely conditions were never going to last, yesterday was warm and only a little bit damp and I was working, headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochan with the Derby Uni students for a lap of Dorsal Arete, stayed dry until almost at the bottom of Broad Gully on the descent - so pretty good. No snow being put down up there and not much up there in the first place - not sure I've been up there when it's that lean before. Today we had an easy day for the legs with an Ice Factor and dry tooling day. Right now it's lashing with rain, but rumour has it it's going to start snowing soon!!
Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow and then I'm into my stint of Mountain Equipment - Cotswold Staff training - so some snow would be good!
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