Our guiding in our Scottish hills and Covid-19

Team Ascent Mountain Guides and Covid-19

In these challenging times and while the Scottish Mountains are still open, we encourage everyone to be thoughtful to others and take responsibility for protecting other people. We are still offering our range of outdoor activities which include hillwalking, climbing, mountaineering, ski mountaineering, avalanche awareness and general skills coaching such as rock climbing, rope work, hauling systems for crevasse rescue, mountain navigation and our private guiding. We are sorry to announce that we can only accept one or two clients per mountain guide/leader and can no longer accept larger groups.

We wish to enable enjoyment of the winter mountains with knowledge and safety and aid decision making in relation to appropriate routes for those planning to visit Scotland's hills and mountains. During the current situation with Covid-19 we would encourage all those going outdoors to be mindful of unintended consequences of their actions and the potential impact on medical and rescue personnel. Consider your objectives carefully in relation to current conditions and be safe and responsible!  Please bear in mind that while we may think that we are invincible there are no guarantees that we can avoid mild symptoms and we can still pass the virus on to others.

For further information regarding Covid-19 please follow the information provided by Mountaineering Scotland the British Mountaineering Council and the UK Government in respect of understanding your health and potential impact on others.
Thanks 
Sandy Allan at Team Ascent Ltd.

North West Scotland - winter climbing conditions update

A yellow warning day from the met office but we did get the occasional bright period yesterday morning. But it was wild on the hill with strong gale force Westerly winds blowing me off my feet at times. Climbing conditions seem to be improving  bit with some ice forming, although the buttresses keep being stripped of snow in our erratic melt freeze weather conditions... but cracks are beginning to fill up with neve and ice... so there are places where climbing could be quite acceptable. If only the strong winds would let one near it.
Above photo is of Beinn Bhan.

High on Liatach, its looking quite good, but it will be very windy up there.

Slioch, looking more wintry now.

Chamonix off-Piste

Some heavenly conditions here in Chamonix!

woop wopp

Hannah in black and Cara foreground

 Cara- a few runs in and it was soon shredded

Reticent Hannah, go for it Cara

Cara enjoying the sun.

A winters climb with Ewan.

We were lucky with the weather yesterday and my friend Ewan has been climbing for 60 years. Ewan was brought up in Fort William and started climbing when he was ten years of age- lets hope we can all  continue to move so well, maintain our enthusiasm and enjoy climbing.

Not the best of weather but it is Scotland.

This season many of our climbs are rather thin and a bit bare of snow, but higher in the gullies conditions are fine.

Classic Ewan - a few tangles with his ice axe leashes but a fine topping out photo!

Torridon days

The snow is back but the winds are strong.

Liathach today

Coire an Laoigh , Beinn Eighe

A fine view of Sgurr nan Fhir Duibe and Creag Dhubh, Beinn Eighe

An amazing winter so far.

Well we started out with a some good cover and good climbing here in Scotland but over the past weeks the weather has been very changeable, some times we have snow, more often  so far this season we have not! Here below are some images from Torridon...



https://youtu.be/aprRMVu1h0M

Late December  2019 it was like this.

Today 4 January 2020 it is like this.

A continuing thaw  at most levels today  with high winds so Karl requested some outdoor rock climbing so that he coud try traditional climbing, placing his own gear as he climbed.  I suggested we drive to Burghead and  despite the high wind and rainy forecast it stayed dry for most of the day....we have  been very lucky with the weather, and after much chat and instruction climbed three routes with Karl getting the opportunity to lead them all... a very good day.