Focus Mountaineering

I’ve been a bit too busy to blog recently so time for an update. Last week I passed the Mountain Instructor Certificate (MIC) assessment. This is the UK’s highest mountaineering instruction award covering all aspects of instructing and guiding in summer and winter. In the past, for our winter mountaineering and climbing courses Focus Mountaineering has either used other trusted instructors or I have worked with existing clients who I know well.  I am now personally able to offer a full range of winter mountaineering and climbing experiences with my normal speciality of designing custom courses to exactly match clients aspirations.

On the conditions side, we’ve been experiencing a thaw for the last week and many of the buttresses on the East are black for the first time in months. Considering that in previous winters this has been a two-weekly event and the current thaw is the first of this winter I think we’ve been incredibly lucky. There is still plenty of snow and plenty of climbing to be done. Gully lines up to grade III will be largely unaffected as they have been so full of snow and by all accounts the classic ice lines high on Ben Nevis are superb and being climbed a lot. The winter is not over yet.

I’m working in the Cairngorms with a military group this week so I’ll post conditions updates when I get a chance.

Winter 2010 sees the introduction of a new expanded MCofS Winter Lecture Series. Following on from the success at the Clachaig Inn each winter, the lectures will now run from three different locations.

The Clachaig Inn, Glencoe (Tuesday evenings)

The Mountain Cafe, Aviemore (Wednesday evenings)

The Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team Base (Thursday evenings)

The focus of the lectures is to entertain and educate on winter mountain safety. In order to deliver this, an inspiring array of speakers has been chosen who are guaranteed to provide an entertaining night out! All the speakers have spent many years in the mountains and will draw upon their own experiences to illustrate hard lessons learnt. Each presentation will last approx 45 minutes and there will be opportunity at the end of each evening for any questions. Whether you are a hardened climber, or up in the Highlands for your first winter experience, you can ensure a good night out and learn something new.

The MCofS Winter Lecture Series is free of charge and open to all. http://www.mcofs.org.uk/winterlectureseries.asp

Fort William Mountain Festival 11th to 15th February 2010.

• Andy Kirkpatrick hosts the Extreme Night.
• Paul Diffley from Hot Aches screening Single Handed plus The Asgard Project on the Adventure Night.
• Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner celebrate Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith’s incredible first ascents on Ben Nevis 50 years on with Jimmy Marshall himself.
• Best of Banff World Tour.

More details at http://www.mountainfestival.co.uk/

I have just stumbled across this excellent short video which highlights the risks and problems associated with skiing on glaciers. (It also shows the thrills and scenery of high glacial terrain nicely too!!!!) Filmed last winter by British mountain guide Andy Perkins and Courchevel ski instructor Simon Christy on the Valley Blanche above Chamonix, the video will be played at Chamonix ski lifts over the winter. It’s about 7mins long and well worth a look.

I’ve just added a new links page to the website. I’m going to keep adding to it and try and build it up to be a useful resource so if you can suggest any more links then please drop me an email. Also, looks like winter is finally on its way here in the highlands and we’re going to see a big dip in temperatures this week – its about time!

Play the sequence on snow-forecast.com and see the temperatures come down. (Height of Ben Nevis: 1343m Height of Cairngorm: 1245m).

I’ve just returned from competing in this year’s Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) in the Elan Valley in Central Wales. The OMM has become firmly established as the largest mountain marathon in the UK testing fitness, navigation, route selection and an ability to pack an incredibly light rucksack and still be self sufficient for 2 days. Over the OMM weekend the weather is traditionally ‘damp’ and this year was no exception.  There are a number of different categories but they either fall into ‘line’ or ’score’ events. The line events are a more straight forward fell race with a number of points that must all be visited in the quickest time whereas in the score events competitors have a limited time with which to visit any checkpoints on their maps with the the more inaccessible points being worth more than others.  We entered the medium score event giving us a 6hr time limit on the first day and 5hrs on the second.

We struggled with the boggy ground and endless tussocks on day 1 which caused us to move a lot slower than anticipated and, with an hour and a half left, forced us to give up visiting any more checkpoints, drop off the high ground and run for the finish to avoid any penalties. Day 2 was focused in a more southerly part of the Elan Valley and went a lot smoother. The ground was slightly better underfoot and we actually finished almost an hour early having got into a situation where we couldn’t get any more points without risking being late and cancelling out the extra efforts. Overall, we finished about halfway down our category which is not bad considering this was our first OMM. (We did start last years but it was quickly halted due to extremely poor weather). Have to think about tactics for next year now…

Welcome to Focus Mountaineering’s new blog. This blog will hopefully serve to show what I’ve been up to at both work and play.