Aonach Mor

Objective: Skills and practice day on Aonach Mor

Today marks the half way point of our winter mountaineering course and promises to be an easier day than yesterday. Today we focus on crossing ice, snow belaying and avalanche awareness.

To make life easier we take the Gondola up the flanks of Aonach Mor. Strapping on crampons we practice crossing frozen water ice - at first Clive's instruction about positive foot placements seems counter intuitive - all our previous experience tells us to tread anywhere but directly on ice. However, it's quite a remarkable feeling to stamp each boot onto the bare ice - the crampon points bite easily in to provide a secure footing. Within a few minutes our confidence has increased and we are happily front pointing up quite steep ice.

Next Clive gives us an introduction to avalanche awareness. We discuss slope assessment and hazard evaluation and the effects of past and present weather on the snowpack. We get hands on by digging a snow pit and checking for weak layers and finally perform a hand sheer test.

Now we have a good idea of the stability of our chosen slope we can move out into the middle to practice snow belays - various methods to protect a party descending a steep snow slope.

First up is the bucket seat belay which requires a lot of digging with the adze of the axe - perhaps a good reason to bring a snow shovel. Once constructed the bucket seat proved remarkably strong - indeed it easily held three people's weight on the rope. However, any snow anchor is only as strong as the snow its constructed in. Today we have ideal neve snow but that wont always be the case so we reinforce the bucket seats with a horizontal buried axe indirect belay.

Next we look at a Stomper belay which is much quicker to construct as it simply involves burying the axe vertically in the snow and holding it in place by standing on it. Quick but not as secure. That said a similar belay was successfully used by Pete Schoening 8000m up K2 in 1953 to halt five men sliding simultaneously for nearly a hundred metres down a 45-degree slope. A feat that earned him the nickname "Mr Belay".

Finally we look at constructing snow bollards which have the advantage of not leaving any gear on the hill during descent.

During our day it was interesting to note how much snow a party climbing 200m above us dislodged as they kicked steps. By the time it fell down to us it was moving at a blistering pace and we were glad to be wearing climbing helmets!

"Practice is the best of all instructors" - Publilius Syrus, first century B.C.