Established in 1992 Talisman Mountaineering | Cairngorm Guides | Aviemore specialise in winter skills, climbing and guiding in the Cairngorms. This is a day to day OR monthly diary of what we get up to on our courses and the winter conditions in the Scottish mountains...!
Talisman Vimeo Videos
Thursday, 31 October 2019
Monday, 28 October 2019
Winter Skills Courses for 2020
As can be seen from the photos above, a great start to the winter 2019/2020 season with the first proper snows falling on the 21st October and further cold temperatures and snowfall since.
We are currently taking bookings for winter skills and winter mountaineering courses with the Christmas and New Year courses now almost full. We've now got just one place left on the 27-31 December 2019 course and two places on the 4-8 January 2020 course.
Our winter mountaineering courses are again proving popular with some of the January and early February courses already filled.
Still plenty of spaces available on our weekly winter skills weekends and with private guiding as well as from mid-February onwards.
We've got a short video showing the first snow of winter on Cairngorm at https://youtu.be/2U3pBDcuXy8
Monday, 21 October 2019
Saturday, 19 October 2019
Cairngorm Winter Skills Courses for 2020
Spaces still available on our Christmas 2019 and New Year 2020 Winter Skills courses based in Aviemore in the Cairngorm mountains in Scotland.
To find out more and to book your next winter adventure for 2020 visit our website at https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/winter-skills-course
Monday, 18 March 2019
Monday, 11 March 2019
Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Monday, 25 February 2019
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Monday, 11 February 2019
Sunday, 10 February 2019
Monday, 4 February 2019
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Thursday, 31 January 2019
Winter Sunset Reflections on Ice
Some of yesterdays stunning drone footage of the sunset on a frozen Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms set to music - please share!
Thursday, 24 January 2019
Petzl Gully Review and Good Ice Starting to Form :-)
Today I was out looking for thick ice while testing a the latest ultra lightweight Petzl Gully hammer with the new Petzl Sum'tec ice axe.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Petzl hammer's thin pick easily penetrated the water ice despite it's ridiculous low weight (280 grams).
I didn't get a chance to try the hammer and it's maybe not the tool for hard mixed, extreme ice and dry tooling but for general mountaineering on snow and ice it works really well.
The Petzl Gully is sold mainly as a steep skiing snow gully/couloir tool but when reviewing the hammer I found it was equally well suited to easy ice climbing on some steep ice bulges especially when paired with the slightly heavier and more robust Sum'tec mountaineering axe.
Quite worrying approach over any hard snow towards 'Mhearad's Fall' due to avoidable depth hoar or facets, so I am told, unless of course you are trying to access the ice route but being able to plunge the Sum'tec into the ground below gave added confidence!
Once on the ice it was nice, relatively safe and really enjoyable. With a brief freeze thaw it'll get even better unless it all melts OR gets buried by lots of fresh snow ;-)
Bespoke Guiding and ice climbing on Cairngorm's 'hidden Alpine Face' routes can be booked online here >>>
Friday, 18 January 2019
A winter mountaineering and introductory winter climbing stunner!
Despite all this Reena progressed from her very first steps using an ice axe and crampons, having lunch in a snow-hole and learning about weather, avalanche risk and basic winter rope-work, to mixed climbing and alpine style rope-work.
Then finally on the last day Reena and Paul climbed a Grade 2 winter route in Coire an t-Sneachda to experienced the most amazing views.
Although sheltered and sunny on the climb they topped out through a blast of freezing spindrift onto the wild wind swept arctic alpine plateau of the Cairngorm's.
Despite the freezing wind and windchill temperatures of minus twenty both Reena and Paul loved the whole experience and their Scottish winter mountaineering course and Scottish winter adventure with Talisman Mountaineering.
A short winter climbing video of Reena and Paul's last day of the winter mountaineering course is at https://www.facebook.com/CairngormMountainGuides/videos/2250518108529434/
Thursday, 17 January 2019
Alpine rope-work and belays
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| Scottish winter mountaineering and winter climbing |
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| Winter mountaineering rope-work and direct belays |
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| Mess of Pottage and Jacob's Ladder |
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| Winter climbing rope-work and belays |
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| Grade 2 winter climbing rope-work |
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| Grade 2/3 winter climbing! |
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| Winter mountaineering rope-work on Twin Ribs |
Another good mountain day this time in Cairngorm's Coire an t-Sneachda looking at winter rope-work and rock anchors as we climbed several Grade 2 pitches before moving together alpine style onto Fiacaill Ridge.
Wednesday, 16 January 2019
A frosted goggles day!
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| Winter mountaineering snow-hole |
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| Winter mountaineering snow-hole |
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| Winter mountaineering Paul abseiling off a snow bollard |
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| Winter mountaineering Reena abseiling off a snow bollard |
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| Reena abseiling off a snow bollard |
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| A wintry Association of Mountaineering Instructors rucksac! |
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| Winter mountaineering rope-work and snow belays |
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| Winter mountaineering rope-work and bucket seats |
Day three of our Scottish winter mountaineering course with Reena and Paul and it's winter again and a proper frosted goggles, rope-work and snow-shelter day!
Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Winter Mountaineering days one and two
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| Reena and Paul enjoying the atmospheric winter weather |
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| Winter mountaineering rope-work |
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| Scottish winter mountaineering course step-cutting |
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| Scottish winter mountaineering course crampon practise |
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| Winter mountaineering course Ciste Gully Cairngorm |
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| Ski course Ciste Gully Cairngorm |
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| Winter skills crampon practise and crevasses! |
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| Reena and Paul winter mountaineering course on Cairngorm |
Day one stunning winter weather to practise winter skills and day two windy, wet and mild to look at navigation and winter mountaineering rope-work in comfort and in preparation for the wintry mountain weather tomorrow and for the rest of the week!
Friday, 11 January 2019
Proper winter is arriving for winter mountaineering and winter skills courses soon!
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| Guided Winter Climbing |
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| Winter Mountaineering and Introductory Winter Climbing |
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| Winter Navigation using Map and Compass |
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| Scottish Winter Skills for Universities and Clubs |
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| Winter Skills Scotland |
With all the weather forecasts predicting a period of unseasonably cold temperatures from the middle of next week, fingers crossed, snow and ice conditions should be good for our five day winter skills and winter mountaineering course starting on the 26th-30th January 2019.
We are also running an open two day winter skills course on the 26th-27th January 2019 too.
As always private instruction and guided winter climbing can be arrange at dates to suit.
Details of ALL our winter skills courses and guiding can be found here >>>
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