Sam, Stu and I enjoyed some high quality, low grade (I-III) ice climbing on the CIC hut crags on Ben Nevis today. There was a real pristine atmosphere about the mountain. Very few people, no wind and a thick carpet of brilliant white snow coating everything that wasn't exposed to the recent strong easterly winds.

Few teams ventured high up but there was a cosmopolitan effort flying the German flag on North East Buttress ("Man trap - what Man trap, we didn't notice it!"); the Italians reported "no danger" on a successful ascent of Point Five Gully, their words not mine, and a French team from the hut climbed Vanishing Gully. A sociable Italian team bound for Lobby Dancer on the North Face of Castle Ridge ended up climbing Raeburn's Buttress.

Over in Glencoe there has been a truly enormous avalanche on the West Face of Aonach Dubh, Stob Coire Nan Lochan. Prenez Garde!

This has proved to be the coldest winter in the Scottish Highlands since 1963