Scottish Winter Skills

Overview

You’ll gain confidence in a wide range of winter-specific skills, including how to choose and use winter equipment, basic winter navigation, safety and avalanche risk assessment. Our friendly, highly experienced instructors will make sure that you have covered what you need to know to explore the mountains all year round.

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

The Objectives

We aim to cover the following topics:

• What to wear and what to take with you on a winter day
• Use of crampons and movement in winter
• Use of the ice axe, including ice axe arrest
• Managing your safety in winter
• Basic winter navigation skills
• Avalanche risk assessment

What to Expect

Given the nature of this course, venues and day-to-day activities are weather and snow-dependent and decisions regarding the exact day’s programme will be decided by the course director each morning. The whole group will meet for a morning briefing each day, allowing you to share the decision-making process with experienced instructors.

Experience Required

You should be a keen summer hillwalker with a desire to head out in winter.

How Should I Prepare?

You should have summer hillwalking experience, but no previous winter walking experience is needed.