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Mont Blanc Winter Training Weekend Cairngorms 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 February 2023

February 4 - February 5


£395.00
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Our winter courses in the Northern Cairngorms give a mountaineering training experience par excellence, not to be missed.  The combination of rapid access to the north facing corries and remarkable Cairngorm Plateau give both a highly practical yet inspiring venue to learn the skills of winter mountaineering, and then put them in to practice with a big winter summits & snow gully climbing day.
This forms an ideal compliment to both our spring West Highlands mountaineering Snowdonia scrambling weekends and is of course really ideal training for climbing Mont Blanc.
The mid winter ambiance is not for the faint hearted…Short days, deep snow, ice, high winds, cold weather, hot aches, tired legs, rosy cheeks and a great feeling of satisfaction are generally all on the menu.   Come well prepared with your winter mountaineering clothing and boots for this is an excellent highly relevant arena in which to test them prior to heading out to the Alps
Summit of Mont Blanc at dawn.  This is your first view of the crucial upper part of the ascent on summit day.  You’ve already done a tough physical ascent and moderately technical scramble to get here, and now you are presented with another 500m of steep, sustained and sometimes exposed snowy mountaineering.  It’s brilliant mountaineering country and a wonderful & memorable experience…for those who are fit and well prepared enough to do it in style…

This course offers an ideal introduction to the fundamental skills of winter mountaineering, with a particular emphasis on movement skills with mountaineering boots, crampons and an ice axe.  These are elements which will serve you well not only on Mont Blanc but on all other adventures along your mountaineering journey.

The first day of the course emphasises lots of this training with the opportunity to practice the skills in context as part of short yet interesting mountaineering journeys.  Whilst we focus on the positive training of sound cramponing on ice and steep snow with an axe, we also look at using the axe for self-arrest as an emergency response to a slip.

Mont Blanc Training Courses
Movement skills training with crampons and ice axe. A fundamental skill of mountaineering & bulls eye Mont Blanc training!

The second day, with a lower 1:2 guiding ratio, is then a great opportunity to build these good movement skills into a bigger and more technical mountain day.  We aim to tackle some steeper mixed terrain (similar to the Gouter Ridge on Mont Blanc) and / or a classic Scottish snow gully / steeper slopes if conditions allow.

This winter course would work very well for anyone preparing for the ascent of Mont Blanc in the summer or any other strong hill walkers / scramblers keen to develop their mountaineering movement skills and enjoy a cracking couple of days mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands, whilst meeting some other like minded folk.
The 2 physical and technical days should really compliment the fitness and endurance training you are able to do on a regular basis from home.  We call this ‘Bulls eye training” and we hope you can join us for a memorable winter weekend in the Scottish Highlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Summit of Mont Blanc after lots of good training in Snowdonia, Scottish Highlands & Gran Paradiso

Course Fitness & Mountain Experience Pre-Requirements

An existing level of very good fitness is required for 2 winter days in the mountains up to 6-8 hours each day.  This will mean you have some existing mountain walking experience or a very good level of current fitness from other aerobic / endurance sports like running / cycling etc.

No previous mountaineering experience is required but you should however be keen to embrace the tough elements of winter days in the mountains and be ready for some moderately exposed mountaineering and thus have a reasonable ‘head for heights’.

Michael’s feedback from our wintery 2022 course…

Having just completed the February Mont Blanc training weekend in Aviemore I wanted to say thank you to HMG for organising a really enjoyable and informative course.  The weather was wintery but the flexibility of the guides to accommodate the weather and still put us through our paces meant we got a lot done.  Rob answered several kit questions before the course and that stood me in great stead.

If you are thinking about whether to go on the course, I can say that it is a great opportunity to benchmark your kit and fitness, the safety and movement skills learned give confidence and the amount of practical information about actually climbing Mont Blanc that comes from general discussions with others and the guide is invaluable.  Definitely recommended. 

Course Fee & Booking

Please note – this is a course fee only and does not include accommodation, equipment hire or any other expenses.  It just includes participation in the course and travel to the climbing venue from Aviemore.

Venue

Aviemore
Aviemore, United Kingdom + Google Map

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