Milder but still firm!

A bit breezy and hazy so I hiked into Coire an t-Sneachda with my skis on my pack and then climbed up to the summit via Windy Col for an evening slide back to the car on empty pistes. Unless you start from the ski area or go via Lurchers (still a walk), it's easier carrying skis on the dry paths rather than skinning between the snow patches below 800 metres.
The milder temps have taken there toll on Cairngorm Mountain's lower runs though it's still possible to ski back to the carpark. From mid mountain upwards there's still tons of the white stuff with the middle section of the Coire Cas Gunbarrel being almost flat!
Having said that the summit of Cairngorm is surprisingly devoid of snow although there's plenty on the plateau, in the coires and in the gullies.
Today it was all still very firm with only the surface softening later in the day, above 900 metres and firming up again as I headed back!
Very little change in the gully climbs from my last visit a few days ago and one or two folk were making the most of the almost deserted coires.
I had fun playing with my head-cam as a pole-cam as I ski down the Cas headwall on lovely spring snow - see below!

Nottingham Uni Mountaineering Club's annual WILD winter weekend with Talisman!

Great to see  familiar faces on our now annual winter weekend with Not's University.
The club's name may have changed from the Munro Pineapple and Adventure Societies but apart from that the routines and courses were of a similar format.
Between us the instructors were Fi and Rob with the Winters Skills groups, Jamie and myself with the Winter Mountaineering groups and Jonathan with the Winter Climbing group.
The weather was wild and visibility even at carpark level was almost non existent at times, due to the high winds and driving snow. It was a steep learning curve for many of the students, even those that had been out in winter before, in much more settled conditions!
Despite this we did manage to cover the basics, though in difficult conditions, as can be seen from the mountaineering groups video and photos.
After Saturday's baptism by ice the winter climbers and mountaineers had a more technical day looking at the ropework and belays on Sunday.
Despite higher winds being forecast for Sunday, it turned out a much nicer day with good visibility and lighter winds.
With Fi and Rob the Winter Skills groups headed up to our sheltered spot from Saturday and a had a good day looking at micro navigation techniques and emergency shelters.

Lots more photos on the Facebook Album here and some photos from the students to follow...

The Braeriach Corries expedition

Glen was interested in some WML navigation coaching and a winter rope work refresher on grade 1 ground. As Talisman takes you further and higher, I suggested we take a trip into Braeriach's Garbh Choirie!
I knew from our recent trips on the Ben MacDui plateau that Braeriach still had full winter cover in the the easier gully lines!!!!
I have to say it was an excellent choice and we had an absolutely fantastic two day expedition on Braeriach with truly alpine conditions.
This gave us a chance to explore some of the totally unique areas that are rarely ever visited due to the effort and their remoteness on our navigation legs and the to climb Great Gully in the wild, remote and truly alpine Garbh Choire Mor.
The rarely visited glaciated hanging coire is the site of the UK's longest lasting semi-permanent snow fields with it's unique rare arctic alpine fauna and flora and can be seen in the HD video below.

The HD YouTube climbing video is now at http://youtu.be/AbXYan_LmmA
Even more photos are on the Talisman Mountaineering Facebook page here including the Capercaillie! Sadly the Capercaillie we've met several times defending it's area on the walk in has been killed by a dog.

See http://www.snh.gov.uk/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/?id=698

Trek & Mountain magazine winter mountaineering article!

A nice surprise - Fi's just received an email from Carron saying that our advanced Winter Mountaineering course get a mention in the latest issue 23 of Trek & Mountain magazine. 

A PDF of Scottish Winter Skills article can now be viewed  here (3.31 Mb).

We're running several of these courses throughout the winter season into Easter 2012 including this Christmas and New Year.

We still have a couple of places available on the 27th-31st December 2011 and on the 2nd-6th January 2012 as well as places on the five day intro Winter Skills courses.