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.

Winter returns with a vengeance!

Winter has returned to the Cairngorms with fresh snow down to below carpark level this evening and heavy drifting on the hill. 

Fi joined Lawrence and myself for a bus man's holiday break in our snow hole. 

In contrast to the last few days the day started calm with light snow flurries though in returning from our mini adventure the winds had picked up creating lots of knee deep drifts to wallow in and blasting spindrift!

To get an idea of the wintry conditions, see the Facebook snow hole video here.

A fantastic two days exploring and snowholing...

What a great two days and one night out on the Cairngorm massif with Vish, Mike and Fi. The cold sunny weather was perfect for snowholing and meant everything remained dry and warm, once inside our expedition snow-shelters.
On day one we headed up toward Ben MacDui via the Coire an Lochain ridge and had great views of the Lairig Ghru and the mighty Braeriach corries as we climbed. A bit of micro navigation across the plateau towards the 'Yellow Lochian' and then towards the buried "GUB" holes, where after a bit of probing, Vish and Mike set about digging their snowhole for the night.
Fi found our previous snowholes which we easily dug out before going to explore the buried "all the zeros"
We had some amazing views of the snowy buried Loch Etchachan before heading back towards the icy Loch Avon cirque, the Shelterstone and Hells Lum crags.

We then headed back to our predug shelters for soup, tea and cake and to check on the others. A few more brews from snowmelt, before our evening meal in the warmth of our sleeping bags. Fi fell asleep reading her book and the night passed quickly before being woken at dawn by the blazing sun on our east facing balcony doorway!
A breakfast of porridge, fruit, hot chocolate and plenty of tea before packing and sweeping out the shelters, for a trip up onto the nearby summit of Ben MacDui for the obligatory summit photo.
We then all headed back via the Northern Corries plateau edge avoiding the heavily corniced Goat Track descent route, then up and over towards Cairngorms Pt 1141 and down the Cas Ridge to our cars.

Snow conditions were perfect for skiing with a silky surface of hoar frost and yet still firm enough for easy walking. Needless to say, the huge overhung cornices around the main climbing areas had deterred most sensible climbers!

More photos and details on Fi's Marmotte Blog here

Ben MacDui & Cairngorm snowhole expedition...

"I was out with Graham, Anthony and David for the expedition part of their five day Talisman Mountaineering course. We walked in to Coire an t-Sneachda in the best kind of weather you could ask for. Crampons on and we were off up half a gully then a bit of a walk towards our snowhole site just below Ben Macdui..."

Full details and more photos on Fi's Blog here

Superb weather for our overnight snowhole expedition...

A lot more snow about than on last years Winter Mountaineering Snowhole Expedition.

In 2012 folk thought winter had prematurely finished in late February - in reality it had only just started with the skiing and Scottish Alpine climbing continuing well into May 2012! See the old video from March here