Scottish Performance Winter Climbing

Overview

Our highly qualified, expert instructors will share their experience and knowledge of climbing, route choice, snow evaluation and conditions to ensure you make the most of what Scotland can offer.

Through five days of climbing, you’ll hone your skills with plenty of mileage over snow, ice and mixed ground, all the time sharing the adventure and judgement as we find our way. Teaming up in pairs means you’ll gain the coaching you need at an appropriate level. We’ll aim to break the Grade V barrier and climb some of the best winter routes in Scotland.

This course will be delivered from our scenic winter base in Scotland, the Alltshellach hotel in North Ballachulish.

The Objectives

The aim of this week is to develop your previous experience and enthusiasm for winter climbing. We aim to quickly refresh the basic climbing skills in order to pick up where we left off as soon as possible. Whether it’s further coaching, further variety, or simply harder, faster, longer.

What to Expect

We’ll aim to climb routes such as:

Orion Face Direct (V), Hadrian’s Wall Direct (V), Point Five (V), Smiths Route (V), Observatory Buttress (V), North East Buttress (IV), Ben Nevis Scabbard Chimney (V), Chimney Route (VI) Innuendo (V), Stob Coire nan Lochan, Glencoe West Chimney (V), Stob Coire nam Beith, Glencoe Organ Pipe Wall (V), Beinn Udlaidh

Experience Required

You should have previous experience of winter climbing on grade III and IV routes and a desire to push your experience onto grade V’s. You’ll need to be able to undertake five consecutive days in the Scottish Mountains with ascents of approximately 1000m whilst carrying a rucksack weighing about 10-12Kg.

How Should I Prepare?

You should have a very high level of winter climbing fitness with the ability to spend 6-8 hours moving over steep, broken terrain. The days will often include 800-1000m of ascent and descent. You’ll also need to carry a rucksack with your spare clothing, lunch and equipment in – this could have an approximate weight of 10-12kgs.

This level of fitness can be obtained through regular summer and winter days in the mountains and 2-3 exercise sessions per week. This could include running, cycling, walking or playing sport, these should be challenging and tiring sessions. Upper body strength is required and training in this area, such as weight sessions in the gym, should be included in your preparation. This should focus on strength and stamina in the arms, shoulders and back. Time spent rock climbing either outside or at an indoor climbing wall will also be valuable