Andreas is keen to do some leading so we went up the gondola at Nevis Range and walked up to the top of the crags on the East Face. The chairlift is nearly fixed after it was derailed in the last storm but it was not quite ready to run today so we walked all the way up soft snow with an icy crust in places. The crag was well sheltered from the wind and there was a small soft cornice on the older big cornice with a band of fresh soft snow underneath.

We abseiled in to Easy Gully from a snow bollard which was easy to make in the soft snow and plenty strong enough. The walk across to Central Buttress was not too spooky and the climbing on Morwind was very nice. There is lots of soft snow and there is also a bit of ice in the lowest chimney which was fun to climb (but a bit harder than the normal route which avoids this on the left). The turf was very usable and the cracks are full of ice - it helps to know where to start digging to find protection! Andreas did a fine job of leading the third pitch which has a tricky step into a groove. It was raining on the top (1200m) when we walked back down. It was very pleasant climbing but it would be so much nicer if it froze properly!

While Andreas and I did lots of coaching in The Ice Factor, Donald and Mustafa went up Ledge Route on Ben Nevis. Mustafa has been up the Seven Summits and is keen to enjoy some Scottish climbing. Today the weather was not as bad as forecast - the wind was not so strong, it rained but not all the time and the clouds were higher than expected so there were some views to look at.

It is warmer though with rain below 1100m. This triggered some more avalanches, one down Number Five Gully which Donald and Mustafa watched and one down the gully north of the Red Burn of which they saw the debris. Hopefully this slight thaw will penetrate the deep weak layers in the snow and stabilise it all when it cools down again. It could also make some very nice climbing.

With bad weather arriving at about lunch time Andreas and I went to Buachaille Etive Mor to climb North Buttress. Not surprisingly the route is buried in snow! In some places this was useful and in others it was a bit of pain. The approach up the broken rocks was a bit easier than normal because many of the rocks are covered in snow. We found a boot trail as well which made it much easier too.

On the climb the quality of the snow varied from weight bearing under foot to totally useless but hard work to dig away. A single pick would never have been sufficient to hold body weight but with two of them and by focusing on good footwork it all seemed to work out OK. Spreading my weight over three points of contact was usually enough to make me float. All very good for your technique but a bold approach is useful. It is also useful to learn the precise density of snow required to hold your weight.

Under the snow the rocks and turf are not frozen. There is a little ice but most of the rocks are not frozen in place. This made it easier to look at placing wires on belays (Andreas is Swiss and wants to practice placing anchors). I was grateful to know where some of the good spikes are for belays since everything was so well covered.

There is a trail up Curved Ridge and a large area of avalanche debris under Crowberry Basin. Crowberry Gully is very full of soft snow and even the mixed routes on Crowberry Tower such as Shelf Route are so buried that it will be hard to climb them. A big cornice and steep scarp slope have formed at the top of Coire na Tulloch but we managed to sneak down the east side of the coire and got down with a good glisade to find even more avalanche debris from a couple of nights ago down in the gorge. It's an Ice Factor day tomorrow - windy, warm and wet.