Scottish winter climbing is world famous for its estoric mix of conditions, weather, situations and sheer adventure. In a single day out you can end up climbing snow, ice and rock, often all three on a single pitch.

This places unique challenges when equipping ourselves for the season, both in terms of equipment and skills. This article aims to provide some top tips to help improve your enjoyment, safety and efficiency whilst winter climbing in Scotland. Many of the tips are also transferable to climbs in the worlds bigger mountains, they all assume a basic knowledge of rock climbing and snow and ice techniques.

I have divided my tips into the following categories:

Movement
Technical
Psycological
Equipment

I have tried to keep the tips short and sweet so that they can be remembered and used on the crag in anger.

Movement
1. Keep your weight on your legs and use small steps to stay in balance
2. When first climbing snow and ice keep your feet and hands inside an imaginary rectangle that is not much wider than your shoulders. (This will encourage you not to over-reach with your tools and encourage you to create a level platform with your feet)
3. On ice learn to swing an axe efficiently:
Load - bring the tool up and back to behind your head
Aim - focus on the target - avoid bulges and aim for hollows
Fire - swing the tool in an arc through the shoulder and elbow
Flick - finish with a flick of the wrist
4. Rest - Cut or kick a foot ledge or at least have both feet alongside each other

Technical
1. Build good belays - take the time to get a decent belay, there is rarely any need not too
2. Clear the snow away - use your axe and hands to clear the snow away to find gear placements
3. Create a stance - snow is a workable medium. Your stance is part of the belay so make it a good one for you, your partner and your ropes.
4. Use double ropes - whatever length of pitch you climb you can abseil off again by tieing the ropes together

Psycological
1. Prepare - get the avalanche and weather forecasts, know where your route goes, plan the descent, be adaptable and make sure your equipment is ready (see below)
2. Approach - it is far better to walk in in the dark than to walk out in the dark so get up early
3. Gear Up - get yourself sorted before you get onto steep ground so that you are not anxious before you begin
4. Visualise - see yourself suceeding, enjoy yourself but remian rational

Equipment
1. Sharpen your axes and crampons
2. Consider a specialist winter climbing harness that can be put on whilst wearing crampons such as the DMM Super Couloir or Black Diamond Alpine Bod
3. Centralise the belay anchors for quick changeovers and on long climbs consider climbing in blocks instead of alternating leads
4. Rack your gear the same way each time - it saves time

Happy climbing!