UKH

I'm going on a course with Adventure Peaks this weekend and up until Wednesday next week,

I was just wondering how out of luck i'm going to be with conditions in that area.

Seeing the forecasts there's going to be a thaw, which doesn't inspire much confidence really...

In reply to Noxeal:

Last week was borderline on some routes round Ben Nevis last weekend. The guides will know all the best areas so if anything is worth doing you'll be fine. Theres some very nice tea shops in FW.

In reply to olddirtydoggy:

Thanks for the info yeah im sure the guide will keep me busy anyway!

I will make sure to check one of the tea shops out

In reply to Noxeal:

Good luck, I was up in Fort William earlier in the week theoretically for skiing with my son. We ended up doing one day skiing at Glencoe - terrible visibility in cloud and crap snow cover, one day fat biking in Aviemore - we drove over and up to the ski car park to see if it was better in the east, but it was ridiculously windy and the skiing very limited as well, so mountain biking in the forests turned out to be a lovely alternative. Then on our last day Nevis Range did open (too windy on Monday and Tuesday) but looking at the webcams it was clear a lot of the little snow they had was melting fast so again decided it wasn't worth the money so we hiked up to Steall instead.

People were climbing at the start of the week in windy conditions, the former editor of UKC did an ice route on Ben Nevis on Wednesday, but all talk seems to be of "turbo thaw" since then. Hope things change back to being more wintery when you get up there!

In reply to TobyA:

Glencoe skiing has closed again after this week's thaw, likewise Nevis Range. More snow forecast from Tuesday...

In reply to Noxeal:

Just completed a few days with Westcoast Mountainguides. Tuesday and Wednesday were good on Stob Coire nan Lochan and the Ben. Very windy early in the week. Less so at the moment.

Twisting Gully on Tuesday had soft snow and some frozen turf higher up but no ice.

Tower Ridge was an excellent day out on Wednesday including going under the boulder on the Eastern Traverse. Tower Gap was exciting too.

Yesterday it rained until mid afternoon with a little sleat/snow up high in North Gully on the Ben. Ice was melting with running water on the first icy pitch in North Gully.

Today has been warm again but not as wet as forecast but no sign of a significant freeze yet. The buttresses are looking quite black now but is still snow in the corries. Today we had a coaching session at the Ice Factor so haven't been on the hill.

The big gullies all have lots of snow in them and the cornices are not so big. We descended No.3 Gully after Tower Ridge.

So stuff was still there yesterday at least. Hope you have a good trip and there will be something you can do.

In reply to bonebag:

Sopping wet on Ben Nevis today. Parties in No.3 and No.4 and on Ledge Route. Ice visible left of approach to No.2 had a river running through it.