Jagged Globe – Winter Mountaineering
Posted by Max Hunter on 19th January, 2017
Jagged Globe – Winter Mountaineering Course
This week Luke and Stuart are on the Winter Mountaineering course with Jagged Globe. They wanted to focus on developing independence for future winter climbing. On Monday we reviewed and increased skills with boots, crampons and the axe, covered all types of terrain, started to look at rope work and belaying, as well as planning, managing risks and looking at the snowpack.
On Tuesday we spent a lot of time looking at snowcraft, and snow anchors, with associated belay techniques, their uses, strengths and limitations. We then touched on rock anchors and rock belays.
On Wednesday we went ice climbing at the Ice Factor. We looked at ice screw placements, further at belay construction, stance management, leader changeover and climbing calls. In the later afternoon we looked at dry tooling for a few hours.
Today (Thursday) we put most of this together – Luke and Stuart led their first winter climb in fine style. They used spike belay, a multi screw belay, a bucket seat belay, another spike belay and finally a bollard belay at the top. They finished their afternoon by abseiling down Number 4 Gully to practice their new abseil skills.
Well done to them both. An incredibly steep learning curve achieved over the last 4 days for them both, made possible by their extensive previous experience, their focus and attention to detail.
They still have Friday to enjoy, and hopefully their second winter lead.
Ice axe arrest practice – Monday
Direct belaying – Monday
Indirect belaying – Tuesday
Testing the belay – Tuesday
Dry tooling – Wednesday
Ice / mixed climbing – Wednesday
Winter leading – Thursday
Top of Number 3 Gully
Completing their first winter lead climb
Abseil down Number 4 Gully