A guided winter climbing adventure with Chris!

250 metres of adventurous abseiling into an amazing winter venue before climbing back up, over and out with Chris, what a BIG adventurous day!

Back for more winter mountaineering fun!

Nice to see Mark again and this time with Christina for a few more days of winter mountaineering.
Saturday's weather forecast was for a wet and very windy morning followed by a calmer, brighter and colder afternoon.

To get the best out of the day we spent the morning looking a ropework while sheltering from the weather then in the afternoon when the wind and rain stopped headed up to practise some winter skills in the sun! Sunday was a breezy, firm and crusty wet pants day, though getting more and more wintry!

The weather wasn't particularly pleasant but perfect for refining Mark and Christina's winter mountaineering skills in Coire an t-Sneachda.
We were on steeper ground in more adverse goggle conditions as we climbed up onto the Cairngorm plateau.

With a bit of whireout navigation we checked out some snow shelters for lunch before crossing the plateau and abseiling back down over a small cornice into Coire Cas!

Another great Cairngorm snow-hole expedition with Stuart and Dave.

 

The forecast for later in the week were for the winds to increase to storm force as winter returns.
With more manageable westerly winds of less than 80 mph and an overnight freeze forecast for Monday night, Stuart, Dave and myself headed up Cairngorm for our planned snow-hole expedition.

As we battled the up the hill I was surprised how much snow loss there had been from the previous day and concerned that we might have an uncomfortable night in a collapsed dripping snow-hole!

Thankfully we arrived just in time to claim and remodel our snow cave for the night.

As the temperatures dropped and the snow firmed up the guys sculptured a lovely line of steps to lessen the discomforts and hazards of going for a night time call of nature without crampons, it worked well!!

There were a couple of other teams up for the night but once inside our dry icy frozen shelter it felt like we had the whole mountain to ourselves and we enjoyed a very comfortable night.

Today after breakfast we headed up to Cairngorm's gusty summit before heading back down, taking great care not to slip on any hard snow and water ice!

On our last day we avoided the 90 mph plus winds and had a more relaxed instructional day looking at micro navigation.

The good news is that winter returns over the next day or so and just in the nick of time!

Weekend and five day Winter Skills Expedition

Despite the mild temperature we had a fun weekend of winter skills with Annie, John, Craig, Stuart and Dave looking at ice axe and crampon use, navigation, avalanche awareness, emergency snow shelters and basic winter rope-work and belays. 

It's a lot to take in during a weekend and really only give a taster of winter so Stuart and Dave are staying on until Wednesday for the snow-hole expedition and to consolidate their winter skills and micro-navigation.

Cairngorm Denali Expedition Training with Colin

A great three days of private winter mountaineering training with Colin on the 13-15 February 2017.

We even had specially arranged fierce winds and driving spindrift on Colin's overnight Cairngorm Denali exped training then calm and sun the following morning while ascending the fixed ropes on Cairngorm's Denali headwall...!

Cairngorm Club Winter Skills Weekend

Another snowy and bitterly cold weekend of winter skills, so perfect!

On day one ice axe and crampon training as well as weather avalanche awareness.
We found an interesting NE facing snow profile showing a very weak easily released layer (air gap) deep within a snow drift at around 700 metres, one to watch out for and a reminder of the big release in Coire Laugh Mor last year, see photo below!

On day two it was Minus 20 (wind chill) and another proper winters day out with the Cairngorm Club looking at micro navigation, avalanche awareness, emergency snow shelters and some basic ropework to deal with cornices.