Another great day today, we did Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis which was in great condition all the way and escaped the weather higher up. A slight thaw later got everything fairly damp and made the descent awkward with a layer of wet snow balling the crampons up.

Great day on Curved Ridge today… Plenty of wind and snow above 500m, some accumulation in Coire na-tuillach but still OK.  Shelf Route was also climbed today.  Good hard snow and winter condition throughout on Curved Ridge.  We took a short diversion onto the Crowberry Tower also.

Definitely winter today and looking colder tomorrow and a bit more settled.

We had a great day 1 to a 5 day winter mountaineering course today in Lochan, perfect snow and weather for it.

Looked over snow bollards, bucket seats, buried axe and simple pitches..

Many routes looked good despite the freeze line being around the summit.  Scabbard, Dorsal, Twisting, SC and Central Buttress Ordinary route all climbed..  The Unicorn looked white if anyone’s been waiting for that and other steeper routes in that area in particular.

Colder tomorrow which should help improve conditions a bit as well.

Great day on the Ben today, freeze line was down last night so damp snow was generally solid. Lots of snow cover, we did Ledge Route looking at some mountaineering rope-work. Teams on various routes, Green Gully I think, some routes on the Douglas Boulder climbed, Tower Ridge etc. Loads to go at if the freeze line stays down, harder mixed routes looking good as well…

Big depth of snow in Lochan today, all needs good freeze then many routes will be good fairly quickly… We did Dorsal Arete which was good, Scabbard Chimney climbed also today.  One team bailed off Central Ordinary Route perhaps due to unfrozen turf…  No one else in the Corrie today.

Looks a bit colder tomorrow and weekend so could be worth a look?!

We’ve had a variety of great courses running recently from private guiding on some of the Lake Districts classic mountain rock climbs, instructional scrambling courses and multi activity group events…

The last few days we were joined by Steve from  movieit.co.uk who has been putting together some great movies using various innovative filming techniques including a drone (remote helicopter) with camera attached.  The main aim is to produce incredibly fast turn around films for presentations after events or for promotional purposes as well as delivering aerial shots from unique angles, something that could be useful to a range of customers… have a look at their site using the above link.

Here are some stills from the group Steve joined us with over the last few days…

We have had a number of great technical courses running recently and have been lucky with generally great weather.  I have put a selection of photos together of some of our recent outings when I’ve managed to pull the camera out…

Lots of great ‘Summer Courses’ coming up, some still with spaces and the chance to join a course with others meaning great value as the cost is shared!

We are finally getting a consistent run of great weather in the Lakes for our summer courses.  It has generally been fairly mixed, despite a lot of unsettled weather there has been some great days for going high up to climb classic routes on the likes of Dow Crag.  This last week has brought our first consistent run of really settled weather of the summer really, its sunny and the crags are dry!

We have had various courses running but the last few days have been particularly good.  I have been out with some folk doing an article about some classic scrambling and easy climbing in the Lakes for a well known mag.  We stayed at Black Sail Hut and had a day on Napes Needle taking in the classic Wasdale Crack (HS) and the Wasdale Roof (E3 5C)  for a little interest on the side!  We also had a wander up Sphinx Ridge and on to Gable.

Yesterday we headed for the high level route over to Pillar Rock, we climbed the classic scramble/climb Slab and Notch (M) route onto the Rock, then abseiled into the Jordan Gap followed by a quick ascent of the Pisgah to complete the round.  This is a really great mountaineering route with a interesting approach and can be finished with a quick detour to the top of Pillar itself.  Pillar Rock has an almost unique feel to it, there’s a definite touch of the ‘Alpine’ about it set high above the forests of Ennerdale.

With the great weather continuing we will be running lots of summer courses in the Lakes and on Skye so please get in touch with any inquiries…

All our courses are on our site at Mountain Circles