Winter
The image above shows someone on the classic grade II winter traverse of Liathach. This is commonly agreed to be one of the best ridge traverses on the Scottish Mainland. You too can learn the necessary winter skills with nineonesix to confidently attempt outings such as this. At nineonesix we use a variety of venues to take full advantage of Scottish winter conditions; as well as Torridon we may go to Kintail or The Cairngorms.
The nineonesix-guiding team can provide the following:
winter skills - ice axe and crampon use, route choice and navigation, safe travel and avalanche awareness.
winter mountaineering - learn how to move on terrain up to grade I. Revise your winter skills before moving on to learning how to build snow belays and basic rope work. Here in Torridon we have some of the most spectacular and challenging terrain which is perfect for this aspect of winter.
introduction to winter climbing - once again we will revise the skills of a winter mountaineer before starting you on the winter climbing journey. Under the instruction of one of our MICs you will learn a variety of winter climbing techniques such as belaying, placing protection and using a pair of ice tools on ice or mixed routes up to grade II/III.
'A couple of weekends ago I finally managed to start to consolidate my winter skills in north Wales. The conditions had been cold just long enough for us to be able to climb Amphetheatre Gully on Craig yr Ogof and Sargeant's Gully from Llanberis pass, and I did my first winter lead on the latter. It was brilliant fun, I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the winter and I definitely wouldn't have have been confident enough to even give it a go if it wasn't for your tuition in the spring. - Ian'
'Hello Jim Spent the weekend with you through the SYHA at Torridon back in March for winter skills, which was to help me when I headed to Ladakh and a Himalayan peak in July. Thought I would just drop you a line to say that that weekend was a great help to me and my confidence in scaling to the grand height of 6,123 m. on Stok Kangri in the Himalayas. There was lots of snow and a white out at the top, but it was still the top. So many thanks and I may well find myself looking for more skills this winter. Cheers Victoria'
t : 01520 755358 m : 0776 129 3097 e : info@nineonesix.co.uk
Jim Sutherland, 'Alltan', Shieldaig, Strathcarron, IV54 8XN, SCOTLAND