Climbing back out of Easy Gully having examined the snow pack

Some of the climbers finding themselves in tricky positions negotiating the cornices on the Annoch Mor climbs

As part of the Fort William Mountain Festival I booked myself onto Abacus Mountaineering's Avalanche Course. Run by Mike Pescod - who knows what he is talking about as he has been avalanched a couple of times, so is keenly aware of the dangers and has real motivation to avoid them, this one day course was excellent. Mike focuses your mind from the start by letting you know that at the end of the day you will have a go at writing a 'mock' report in the same vein as the Scottish Avalanche Information Service reports. We started off talking for an hour or so about theory in the Nevis Range cafe, after a busy week I was pleased I got to start my Sunday with a decent cappucino! We spent some time looking at the current avalanche forecast, which was a 2. Then we went up on the gondola & chair lift to check out out the snow for real. Mike had us looking for visual clues, explaining and pointed out phenomena as we walked the summit of Annoch Mor. At the summit we had a brief chat and a chance to ask questions with the two SAIS avalanche patrollers, Nix and Blair, who were out doing their own observations for the next days forecast.

It was a beautiful day, cold but much of the snow that felt over the last weeks had been thawed away by Thursdays rain and Friday and Saturdays springlike temperatures. However the cold night on Sat had hardened much of the snow and ski-ers were out enjoying the Summit runs. The climbs on Annoch Mor looked in pretty good nick and were busy.

We abseiled down Easy Gully to examine in detail the snow, and dug hasty pits. Later on walking back down we tried out our own Rusch Blocks (for information on some of these snow pack examination techniques go to the SAIS site). Back down at the cafe, and an opportunity to get another coffee, we worked out our avalanche forecast for the next day. Cleverly Mike had obtained a copy of the SAIS forecast to compare ours to, and we had done pretty well getting key elements right.

I'd definately recommend this course - by asking you to produce your own avalanche forecast you really apply some of the theory. It also improved my own understanding of what the SAIS forecast means.

Anna

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