FIRST 4 DAY WINTER SKILLS COURSE THIS SEASON

Paul is with me on his 4 day Winter Skills Course this week. 10 days or so ago everyone was getting worried with the lack of snow, ie no snow! Well over the last few days there's been a very big change in The Highlands. Snow down to Aviemore level and lots of heavy drifting of snow up on the mountains in The Cairngorms. The snow gates were closed at Glenmore today so we hoofed it up a very beautiful looking ski road as all the trees were loaded with snow. We headed into Coire Loigh Mor. It normally only takes half an hour from the overspill car park into the coire but today with the knee high drifts it took over one hour. The winds were only around 40mph at 800m or so so quite bearable. We went through some ice axe techniques today but the major part of todays' skill set  was all about coping with the weather and snow conditions. Worth noting that if your planning any big days out over next few days you may want to double your expected route times! I love this time of year and these hard snow conditions as it toughens you up for the rest of the winter season. A nice end to the day was coming across the resident Cairngorm Reindeer just lazing about on the snow without a care in the world.