Ben Nevis - AMI Workshop..

I was out with Alan Kimber today along with a group of folk from the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).

The aim is to spend two days looking at some skills required to work on the west coast of Scotland, along with some specific challenges that these particular venues present.

With high winds, rain and rapidly thawing conditions forecast we opted to stay low down on Ben Nevis around the Douglas Boulder. Here we used the normal approach to Tower Ridge to practice some short roping before doing some short pitches towards the Ridge. From here some more short roping and moving together took us down to the Douglas Gap, a short abseil reaching easy ground.

Other teams on the mountain climbed 'Faulty Towers' III and 'SW Ridge of Douglas Boulder' III,4. Despite the thaw there is still a lot of ice present around the Carn Dearg cascades and the Castle Gully's. A refreeze will result in good conditions and improve snow stability, fingers crossed..