Winter Hiking Across Glencoe - Scotland

The days are designed to be introductory winter days for Scotland. However getting fit for the walks is very important to enable an enjoyable and successful trip. It is important that people have good level of summer hill walking fitness and are used to moving on rough ground in the hills. These are not days that people can do without having any fitness prior to the trip. There is up to 1000m of ascent on the 3 days respectivly which could be through deep snow and in poor weather. The fitter people are the more will be gained from the course. There can some times be a 2 hour walk to get upto the snow line to then start the winter skills.

The accommodation is split between a self catering house comprising of 3 bedrooms, a double, single and twin, and a self catering lodge which sleeps up to 4 people. Only people booked onto the course will be staying at the accommodations and each have their own exclusive kitchen and bathroom facilities.

The accommodation is located in the town of Fort William which is also the start point. Details of meeting location will be sent nearer the trip.  

Included

• Qualified and local Winter Mountain Leader
• 4 nights accommodation in Fort William
• Ice axe, crampons, helmet.
• Winter walking boots can be hired for £30 for the course (prior booking needed - please message your guide on the Skyhook dashboard after booking to arrange this).

Excluded

• Food and drinks
• Transport (guests typically car share, and you can arrange this with other participants using the chat on your Skyhook dashboard after booking).

We operate smaller groups at a ratio of 1:6 for the walks. For larger groups we would have more instructors.  

You do not need any winter walking experience. But having a good amount of summer hill walking experience is needed to get the most out of the course. This course is desgined to build upon your summer hill experience and it is assummed that people are comfortable and fit enough to complete a summer hill walk of around 6 hours with 900m of ascent on rough ground. 

There are many supermarkets in Fort William to purchase food prior to the first days walking. It is best to have 'normal' food that you like to eat and is already pre made.

Good options include sandwitches, cereal bars, chocolate bars, nuts, flapjacks.

Poor options include pasta trays, cold soup, energy gels, sweets.

An average lunch might consist of 2 sandwitches, 4 ceral bars/flapjacks, 2 chocolate bars

It is advised to take at least 2 litres of water/juice for the day.

Please remember that you will probably have thick gloves on and this needs to be considered when eating: undoing fiddily rappers or pealing a banana isn't viable. 

• 30-40 litre rucksack (hopefully with ice axe/pole attachment)
• Small personal first aid kit
• 1 or 2 spare warm fleeces/tops
• Spare warm ‘go to ‘ top (mine’s a down jacket for emergencies)
• Gloves (3 pairs)
• Warm Hat
• Waterproofs
• Head torch/Duck tape
• Crampons (B1 or B2 rated)
• Walking Ice axe
• Sunglasses/ski goggles
• Mobile
• Camera
• Lunch/drink
• Walking poles (optional)
• Hiking boots with crampon attachments

NOTES

It is most important to have options for clothing layers. Carrying a least 2 spare tops in the rucksack is important as the weather and temperature can go up and down a lot during the day.  

It is also important to have several pairs of gloves at different thicknesses: 1 to start, a thicker pair as you get higher, and another thick pair if it is really cold.

To feel most secure on your feet I would strongly advise that you have at least B1 rated winter boots (it will say on the label), summer only boots do not fit crampons properly and are too flexible on the sole.  

Winter boots and crampons can be hired in Fort William for a small daily fee (advanced booking is essential). Please contact us for more details. 

We will meet at 7pm to hand out kit and ask any questions on day 1, location details will be sent nearer the time. We aim to finish the last day by 5pm. We do book that night for accommodation to allow for any potential changes in the itinary allowing a full day to accommodate for bad weather. This allows maximum flexibility over the walking days and to hand kit back. 

In winter we normally start on te summer hill walking path. Once we get to the snow line we will be on the snow and off marked paths. The snow consistancy can vary from very hard ice to soft slush to knee deep powder. We teach you the knowledge to walk in these conditions.

The course is aimed at walking ground, we do not get into mountaineering or winter climbing ground and we do not need ropes for the course. That said, in winter walking there is always an element of some steeper ground for part of the day on snow or maybe a snowy ridge if it is appropriate. 

The west coast of Scotland is the wettest part of the UK and the majority of the time the upper slpoes are covered in cloud. The average day on the summit is around -1 to -15 degrees with cloud cover and wind between 20mph to 40mph. There are times when the sun is out and the sky is clear but this is not to be asummed as the norm. Your instructor will advice on the best kit to take based upon the weather forecast. We still continue the walk in all weathers, unless it is extremely strong winds at the summit. This we will not know until a few days before. In this event we can stay lower on the mountins.   

The minimum age is 18.