Glen Coe, Winter Skills

Glen Coe ski area, perhaps no need for the sign ! 

The Lost Valley (Andy Spink)

I have been out over the weekend with a school group from Edinburgh over the weekend on a winter skills course. Its been a wet and mild time for a while now up here and the winter conditions are certainly suffering. We headed up to the ski area in Glen Coe on Saturday where we found plenty of snow to practice some skills on. The ski area itself was not looking to good though it was shut due to winds although the runs where fast melting out. It remained wet and mild all day with some heavy rain. We headed back and spent some time in the Ice Factor using the rock walls for some top roping and drying off !
Sunday we headed out and headed for a  walk into the Lost Valley following the path up under the zig zags under Gear Aonach. The snow level had receded well up the Glen towards the headwall at the back. Looking into to Lochan there was plenty of snow in Broad Gully and around the back of the Corrie.
There is still ice and snow on the Ben but given this weeks forecast that will be taking another heavy beating. The Cairngorms is also lacking in snow with pretty much no routes in the Northern Corries complete. Although the last two winter may have given us some high expectations and this winter is more akin to a normal winter it could be a pretty poor normal winter !
I was working for Hebridean Pursuits