Essential Winter Mountaineering Skills in Snowdonia
North Wales 2 Day Basic winter skills £250pp
5 Day Winter mountaineering £599pp

These courses are for those who have plenty of summer hill and mountain hiking experience in the UK.

Enabling you to add to your experience of typical hill and mountain terrain and weather and learn new techniques
and skills for safer mountain journeys in winter.

Learn safe movement skills over different types of terrain: iced up rocky summits to firm snow slopes and everything in-between.

Crampon and axe techniques to help make your winter adventures safer.

You will learn about weather, snow and avalanche forecasts.

Most of all we aim to have fun, while your highly experienced and qualified instructors show you their winter playground.

Want to finish your 2 day course with something SPECIAL?

Optional 3rd day available – £100pp = BIG SUMMIT DAY. Get in touch to check availability and discuss.

2026 Dates

£250pp 2 Day Basic Skills course.

£599pp 5 Day Winter Skills course.
Other dates available. Contact us with your preferred date.

Where is the course? Who is it suitable for? What do I need?

Who is the course for?
You will have a fair amount of previous 3 season hill and mountain hiking experience, and you will already know a fair amount about the type of ground and weather conditions that can exist in the hills and mountains of the UK. You should also have a good level of general hiking fitness. If you have some summer grade 1 scrambling experience then all the better.

Where is the course based?
The course takes place in the north of Snowdonia National Park in North Wales, we will use areas such as the Ogwen Valley with the Carneddau and Glyderau mountain ranges, Llanberis Pass and the Snowdon Massif, all of which give fantastic locations for learning the basics on easy angled ground right through to classic winter mountaineering with a wide choice of area’s, routes and objectives to choose from.

Weather and snow conditions in Snowdonia can be fickle
Winter conditions in Wales can be fickle, and snow can’t be guaranteed. We will make best use of the prevailing conditions to allow as much course content as possible to be delivered. If there is no snow the course will switch to general mountaineering and will focus heavily on winter specific techniques, both days will be mountain days, no classroom. Obviously this may mean no crampons skills and no ice axe arrest if there is no snow, but we will cover lots of good technique for footwork on various steepness of terrain as well as safe use of mountain axe.

Course Instructors and Ratios
Your instructor on these courses will be highly experienced qualified Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructors (WMCI) and Winter Mountain Leaders (WML) with years of experience delivering skills courses to all types of individuals and groups including military and SAR personnel. Maximum ratios are 6 clients to 1 instructor

What kit do I need?
You will need clothing and footwear suitable for winter mountaineering. we recommend B2 rated boots and C2 rated crampons and a mountaineering axe, not a technical climbing axe.

Micro spikes not suitable
These are not suitable for our courses

Bendy summer boots non crampon rated are not suitable
These are not suitable for our courses, if your boot manufacturers has no wording saying the boots are B1,B2 or B3 then they are not safe to use with crampons, and as such are not winter boots.

Please read our Suggested Kit List for Winter Skills for full details and also feel free to ask us for advice.

Crampons and Axe Hire
On 2 day courses you can hire Crampons, Ice Axe & Helmet from us for £12.00 per set per day – early booking essential.
On 5 day courses you can hire Crampons, Ice Axe & Helmet from us for £10.00 per set per day – early booking essential.

Boot Hire
We don’t have boots to hire, but you can get them from https://www.outdoorhire.co.uk and we have a 10% discount of the hire cost for people booking our courses.

What area’s are good for accommodation?

Suitable locations all within half hour drive of the normal venues: Capel Curig, Betws y Coed, Llanberis. They all offer B&B, hotels, guest houses and YHA accommodation.

What will I learn?

 The 2 Day Course

A focused 2 day course covering the absolute basics. Day 1 is a skills focused day in the mountains and Day 2 is a mountain journey day to consolidate your new skills.

During the 2 day course you will learn.

  • Basic appreciation of the mountain area weather forecast and what it means to you as part planning a safe mountain journey
  • How to make sense of the avalanche forecast, plus use the Be Avalanche Aware information and the NIVO Test
  • Techniques for crampon and boot footwork, ice axe use for mountaineering and ice axe self arrest
  • Use of walking axe for cutting and kicking steps
  • Techniques for safe travel on steeper ground
  • Refresher of existing personal skills and safety in the winter environment
  • Emergency snow shelters
  • What to do in an emergency

During the 5 day course the ‘additional’ in-depth daily course content will be covered as we spend each day in the mountains.

  • Basic appreciation of the mountain area weather forecast and what it means to you as part planning a safe mountain journey
  • How to make sense of the avalanche forecast, plus use the Be Avalanche Aware information and the NIVO Test
  • Techniques for crampon and boot footwork, ice axe use for mountaineering and ice axe self arrest
  • Use of walking axe for cutting and kicking steps
  • Techniques for safe travel on steeper ground
  • Refresher of existing personal skills and safety in the winter environment
  • Emergency snow shelters
  • What to do in an emergency
  • Mountain Weather forecasting
  • Route choice planning based on weather and snow conditions
  • Lots of map and compass Navigation techniques applicable to winter environment
  • Appreciation of different type of clothing, footwear and equipment
  • Snow pack study
  • Basic Overview of avalanche transceivers

Typical itinerary during the 5 days:

Day One
A hello from your course director and instructional staff giving us a chance to hear what your personal goals are for the week ahead.
Each day there is a morning brief covering the mountain weather forecast and also the avalanche forecast and what that means to us.
This morning you will learn how to check and adjust the fit of your crampons to your boots, we will compare what we have packed for a day in the mountains, what do your instructors carry, where we pack different items in our rucksack and where we pack sharp items like crampons and an axe, and later, how we carry them once on the mountain. Then we will head out to a suitable venue for a day in the mountains to learn safe travel skills across varied terrain using boots, mountaineering axe and crampon techniques. If conditions allow we will also cover ice axe arrest training.
Day Two
Weather and avalanche forecast and a recap of the previous day and a venue chosen based on the forecasts.
Today will be based in the mountain, we will start to look at map planning a journey based on the weather and the snow conditions we find. You will learn map and compass techniques to plan and follow a route regardless of visibility, pacing, timing, contour interpretation, taking bearings on a map and on the ground.We will also look at digital mapping, mapping apps and what you should do in an emergency including the use of emergency shelters and possible construction of snow shelters/snow holes types for rapid protection from bad weather scenarios. We will also look at different snow and avalanche types.
Day Three
Weather and avalanche forecast, a recap on the previous days learning, choice of venue based on the forecast.
A full on mountain journey day to consolidate your new skills and confidence. A chance for you to plan parts of the days route, practice your navigation, consolidate your boot, axe and crampon skills as you travel through different terrain and slope steepness, applying what you have learned about avalanche avoidance.
Day Four
Weather and avalanche forecast, a recap on the previous days learning, choice of venue based on the forecast.
Another mountain day based on the prevailing weather and snow/avalanche conditions, more planning, more navigation, adding the possibility of an easy ridge route today if conditions are good.
Day Five
Our last day in the mountains and a chance for the group to plan one last adventure. You will use all your new knowledge and skills to plan a suitable mountain journey, this will definitely involve mugs of tea/coffee and sticky buns and cakes at the end!

By the end of your winter skills course you will be much better prepared for your adventures in the winter mountain environment, and above all you will have had Expert Tuition from fully qualified instructors with a wealth of worldwide winter mountaineering experience.

Snowdonia Mountain Forecast