Scottish Winter Climbing Trip

Ten intrepid St Paul’s Girls’ School and St Paul’s School pupils braved train strikes and extreme weather to head up to Fort William, Scotland, in late December for snow and ice climbing and winter skills.

Despite enormous amounts of snow – chest deep in some places – closed and icy roads, winds of up to 65 miles an hour, freezing cold and lost gloves, pupils did brilliantly, and really impressed our local guides with their resilience and up-for-anything attitude.

We learnt how to use crampons and ice axes and did some exciting and full-on snow and ice climbing in Glen Coe and on Aonach Mor. Thanks are due to everyone involved, but especially to Trudy Travers for successfully navigating the flights/trains/hire car bookings, to Nicola Doble for her expert driving on icy roads, to Agi Geras for keeping us in line and on track, and to Upper Eighth Former, George, for taking charge of the self-catering(!).