Wind, snow, goggles, gritty eyes and cold fingers!

Winter has definitely returned with a vengeance, so on Richard's last day we headed up Windy Ridge to shelter in Margaret's Coffin!
The strong wind and constant spindrift meant that we had to wrap up well and put on our goggles for a good part of the day.
We micro navigated over Cairngorm's shoulder into the snowhole site to look at avalanche pits and emergency shelter construction.
Poor visibility, constant spindrift with many areas scoured and icy, made digging hard work in most locations.
We eventually found a safe, isolated deep drift of soft wind slab which was just deep and stable enough to dig emergency shelters and some avalanche pits.
After a cosy lunch in one of the larger snow holes turned the compass round 180 degrees and were blown up over, around and then down the hill on the icy pistes. Good crampon practise though apart from the Coire Cas's gunbarrel it would have been a hard teeth rattling surface for most skier and boarders!