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| Trying the ice with one axe to build the footwork, phone camera so weird light ! |
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| Ice axes ! |
Well this morning the weather turned out to be as forecast with high winds and lots of hail, rain and snow falling. After a quick decisive chat it was chosen to have a workshop style day instead utilizing the indoor facilities in the area. We started of at Calluna with the BMC's winter mountaineering video. From there we headed into the climbing wall area at Calluna and got to grips with tying in, attaching to the belay and bringing up a second. After lunch we headed on down to the Ice factor to carry on climbing on the plastic before having a slot on the ice wall.
Although we would prefer to be out in the hills I have noticed in the past that days like these do often have a positive effect in the course. Knots can be learnt much quicker than in the teeth of a blizzard and time spent on steep ice and on the rock wall certainly make people much happier on their feet on different ground on the hill.
The weather tomorrow looks better although I think it may still have a pretty stormy feel as although the gusts are falling a little we are talking about them falling a little from 100mph !
Today I was working for Alan Kimber at West Coast Mountain Guides
