In reply to Chris Huntington:
Well I guess since I started thisI might as well weigh in...
I feel like there is some middle-ground between 'complete ignorance', even if it is your first trip out and going out with a guide:
- We have been out in winter conditions before with a guide, not in Scotland though
- I read (most of) Alpine Climbing: Techniques to Take You Higher and flicked through another book to understand the theory
- Watched all of the glenmore lodge basic skills videos as a refresher
- Did also ask a guide for advice on routes given the actual weather conditions (and took his advice)
- Was properly equipped with decent gear
Was it more risky going out on our own then with a guide? For sure. Would have been even safer staying at home. Do I feel like I did my appropriate due diligence and took (for me) an acceptable level of risk - yes. Did I learn a lot - hell yeah.
I don't know what the exact wind speed was but the forecast was bouncing around 70-80kmh and the guide we chatted to after said it was as windy as he had experienced on the hill. On the hill we knew where we had to decide whether to commit to the ridge; we took a quick bothy to make a decision and decided to go for it. It wasn't comfortable in the bad weather but at no point did it feel unsafe or outside my skill level. We roped up for CMD arete, in better weather would have been perfectly comfortable soloing, and it is good to know for future reference that grade 1 ridges should be ok with most of what the weather can throw at us. So I feel we chose a route that was enough within our comfort zone that we were still ok given the poor conditions. I think it was a very good experience being out in those kind of conditions on our own.
As much for myself as anyone else - here's what I think I learnt (as well as the general improvement in skill on moving on snow):
1) As always - leave early, move fast, allow lots of time buffer. We faffed too much in the morning, spent a bit too long in the bothy so we finished in the dark which could have been avoided.
2) You can actually just get used to very strong winds if they are relatively consistent and not too gusty
3) A bothy bag can make the world of difference to just get out of the weather for a quick break. Again though - keep stops short
4) In very bad weather, roping up is useful if only to make sure you keep together. You can move together without having to constantly making sure you don't get separated. Also interestingly, felt like on both sides much less of a temptation to stop when roped up and I found it easier to settle into a steady pace, even on scrambling terrain where I have a tendency to stop-start.
5) Especially in bad weather a GPS with waypoints and OS map loaded makes it much easier to navigate on the move and keep pressing on, and takes away the element of doubt with a quick glance in poor visibility. However its easy to see how you can become completely reliant on it and on future trips I will force myself to move back to map and compass.
6) Was pretty happy with all my kit, and its in these kind of conditions where good kit pays for itself. 50l bag was a bit overkill, could have done with 35l. If its not in a drybag assume it will get soaked. One axe and a walking pole seemed to be a good combo to cover a range of terrain.
7) I watched the glenmore lodge youtube videos as a refresher - found them pretty slow and patronising, but on the hill I found the repetition did stick in my head on some of the basic skills.
8) Bought some gaiters for the trip - absolutely fantastic kit for gloopy scottish mud and swollen streams to cross
9) Avalance risk I know is something I need to know more about - going to read up on it and may get a guide next time out to learn more about it practically, I think actually seeing different types of snow first hand will be useful
10) I actually really enjoy being on a mountain when its blowing a gale, you can't see anything, you're knackered and you just have to keep pushing on. Once you're committed I found it a very liberating feeling. There's no question of whether to continue, whether you've made the right decision blah blah blah - its just head down, push on, get through.
(And getting the megabus sleeper back to London and going straight into work in the morning was probably the most exhausting bit of the trip)
And I guess to top it off - looking at going back in a few weeks!