Wild winter Pineapple survival skills!

An an early start with the MPS Winter Skills groups took advantage of the colder morning temperatures and lower wind speed to gave a great day looking at avalanche awareness and peer pressure, hypothermia and snow shelters and "when the shit hits the fan" emergency ropework.
After lunch in our custom DIY shelters (and one snowhole AKA 'the death slide') we recreated a realistic winter storm scenario.
For this we climbed up and then abseiled off a exposed corniced slopes (the 'Cairngorm Plateau' or 'Glencoe Ridge') getting shelter from the increasing winds and driving snow, to avoid the onset of frostbite and hypothermia and/or being avalanched.
Meanwhile Jonathan and the climbing group had headed into Coire an t-Sneachda to climb four pitches on the side of Fiacaill Ridge. Some of the other club members also headed into the coire to look at Aladdin's Mirror Direct and the Mess of Pottage.
As forecast the winds increased and weather deteriorated around lunchtime. In blizzard conditions we all headed back to the minibuses only to find that the ski area and access road had been closed at around 2.00 pm, due to the extreme weather.
Despite the wild weather as always, Jonathan, Fi and I had an excellent few days working with Nottingham MPS on their annual Winter Skills meet in "real winter conditions" and hope to see them again next year.
A few more details on Fi's Blog here