UK Winter Climbing Conditions

Note: this particular service is not yet live because it's still "summer"but it will be winter soon enough. The reports are here.


The system relies on a database of conditions reports submitted by you and other climbers around the country. Your participation is vital if this is to be a useful service!

Reports are available by email or on the website:

Reports can be submitted:

Please note that email submisions need to be in a strict format because they are parsed by a program, not a person.

This system was originally written by Mike but I have completely rewritten it from scratch! On that note, if you have any problems/queries with or about the system, mail me at ice-support@scotclimb.org.uk.


Conditions Mailing List

Reports submitted on a particular day will be emailed to the mailing list on the evening of the same day - this will be about 11:30pm GMT - this will hopefully give you enough time to get some information about where you're going, and remember once you've been climbing, Submit a Report!

To join the mailing list send an email to ice-list-subscribe@scotclimb.org.uk. You'll get an automated response to which you need to reply before you'll be added to the list.

To leave the list email ice-list-unsubscribe@scotclimb.org.uk.


Report Format

Because the email submissions are read by a program (piped to a Perl script by procmail) they need to be in a standard format. Here's a sample report - the bold elements define the data field/delimiters. Blank lines are significant.

To: ice-report@scotclimb.org.uk
...
Subject: Any old thing - conditions report

AREA Glencoe
LOCATION Stob Choire nan Lochain
ROUTES SC Gully and a snow plod!

CONDITIONS The conditions on the mountain on Saturday were
perfect - great neve and super snow-ice on the route with only a
little grotty sugary stuff at the bottom - noticed quite a buildup of
water-ice on fantastic looking butress on Bidean, too.

----- End of Email

Basically, AREA & LOCATION go on one line each, then ROUTES which is read until there is a blank line (you could be really busy!) and then the same again for CONDITIONS
The date/time/sender will be determined from th headers of the email/local system time.

Comments by email, please.

Other Sources of Information


Mark Anderson Michael De La Rue