An alpine start to beat the weather

With the weather being forecast to deteriorate markedly at midday Saturday it was now or never to get in one last winter climb done for 2017.

The MWIS forecast mentioned Cairngorm Mountain being covered in mist and cloud with a dramatic increase in wind speed, rise in temperature and fresh wet snow by late morning. However the Met Office, sounded a bit more favourable and had the weather change happening by late afternoon.

We'd decided that an early start and finish was required and were amply rewarded by frosty calm conditions and sparkling skies above Cairngorm as we headed up the hill by head-torch at 7.00 am, but would it last!

With the alpine start we headed up in the dark to the lee of Cairngorm. We reached the mountain shoulder just at sunrise we were be greeted by the golden sun rays on sparking snow, and a minimal cornice and rock hard neve.

As normal we checked out the cornice and avalanche risk on our proposed route before climbing but this time by abseil.

It was a bit slabby at the small cornice but after three abseils down a gully line on lightly covered old snow ice, we were good to go back up. We enjoyed excellent mixed climbing conditions as we climbed and just taking extra care as we reached the last few metres at the cornice.

We finished the climb and reached the summit again just after noon before using our ski passes to head back down, saving the knees, as the winds increased and clouds rolled in.

A wee video on our Facebook page, please like and subscribe to our Facebook page, if you want more posts like this, see here!

A great day and good end to 2017.

Happy New Year

Ron and Fi

Carpe Diem - Solo Winter Mountaineering in the Cairngorms

Our Cairngorm winter skills course dates and booking can now be made direct online here

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.