March is one of my favourite months in Scotland, with longer days, more stable weather and snow it is a great time to be in the mountains - even if they don't appear to have lots of snow on them from the valley.  In this episode of my Mountain Days Vlog series I climb Bidean nam Bian, the highest mountain in Glen Coe with my skis on my back, in the hope of skiing down via Paradise - the NE Face of the mountain. With a stable snowpack all I need is for the recent warmer temperatures to have given me a forgiving surface to ski - rather than the firm neve that I found two days previously on Ben Nevis. This is no Nikolai Schirmer style ski descent, it's all a little more gentle but nonetheless a beautiful way to travel the mountains in spring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZhVqWCjt8Q

 Many thanks to Charlotte, Phil and Jack who joined us this week for our five day winter skills course and enjoyed sunshine, neve, rain, porridge and everything in between 😀 Thanks Tarquin for running the week and providing the photos. 

You mightn't choose to spend a climbing day at Onich Slabs but in today's high winds and rain this sheltered spot saved the day for the third time this winter for me. The skills of using ice tools and crampons to climb on rock were quite new to both Rob and Ewa so a session looking at this will doubtless have been time well spent. For context, it's for crossing ground such as in the photo below where these skills come to the fore and even lower grade winter climbs can have sections of rock to contend with.

  A drive across to the Cairngorms today where we were looking for a climb that might provide a nice progression for Ewa and Rob. The freezing level was certainly higher than we’d hoped from the forecast but despite the soft snow we did, I think, find what we were looking for with Coire an t-Sneachda’s  Spiral Gully . As enjoyable as the climbing was my highlight of the day was lounging around at the top of the crag in the sunshine. Quite a rare occurrence following a winter climb. Adding this to the fact that the lochan in the coire is no longer frozen and that the ptarmigan are changing colour leads me to conclude that Spring really must be near. 

  Mild temperatures continued overnight but there was enough of a forecast dip in temperature this afternoon to suggest that an ascent of  Number Two Gully  on Ben Nevis would give enjoyable enough and more importantly safe climbing today. The Allt a ‘Mhuilinn, flowing fast and high with snow melt meant for a crossing high up the glen but aside from that the plan ran very smoothly. Firm enough snow to climb on, a crossing over the summit of Ben Nevis and descent by Coire Leis. 

A dry and clear day but one where the temperature was a little higher than we'd have wished for. Rob, Ewa and I were out on day one of a five day  Scottish Winter Climbing and Mountaineering Course  and spent the day in Glencoe's Stob Coire nan Lochan. Having invested a little bit of time in refreshing the skills of using an ice axe to prevent or stop a slide we gained the top of Stob Coire nan Lochan via  Boomerang Gully  breaking out from the gully bed near its top to follow open snow slopes to the very top of the hill.

A solo mission for me today, skiing Paradise which is the North East Face of Bidean. It was a long way to carry my skis but a cool adventure on spring snow 😀 Yesterday I managed a hike and fly from Stob Mhic Mhartuin in Glencoe. March is such a cool month in Scotland! 

Huw and I are back up in Scotland and made the most of a joint day off today by getting out climbing on The Ben. After an overnight frost the snow was good and the ice was nice so lots of giggles were had. Ace!

I got home from Norway last night after a final day of ski touring play with Bryn. A quick check of the forecast showed that today was the best weather forecast of the week so I shelved the admin and headed out. I went up Carnedd Llewellyn this morning where it was cold and misty but having dropped a couple of hundred meters I was able to fly back down to the Ogwen Valley (only one Welsh 3000 left to fly now to complete the list 😀). After lunch in Betws I drove back down the Ogwen Valley with the intention of heading home but the summits were free of cloud and calling. I parked at Ogwen Cottage and climbed South Arete on Foel Goch. If I’ve done this before I don’t remember it, a big advantage in getting older 😀 I then got a flight down to Cwm Idwal which was beautiful. Admin day tomorrow 😀

 For the final day of our Arctic Summits snowshoe week we enjoyed a tour of Tverrfjellvatnet which gave four lovely summits in the 550-650m range. This allowed us to avoid the thick cloud on the higher summits and enjoy some lovely light. It’s been a brilliant week, big thanks to everyone who has joined us and made the week very sociable and fun with lots of great mountains along the way. 

We headed up Gratinden today, setting off in some rain and having to navigate in some very limited visibility. Having reached the first summit we turned back from the second, the connecting ridge was icey and consequential so not for us today. As we descended the clouds cleared and we got some beautiful light and views down the fjord. Stunning.