BENIGN CONDITIONS FOR A SNOWHOLE IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Mike enjoying the comforts of the snowhole

Hard work, concrete like snow for digging

A quick jaunt into the Loch Avon basin this morning

Soft snow conditions

Dinner time in the White Restaurant

Calm and good conditions at Loch Avon

A cloudbase hovering around 1100m last 2 days

Mikes first time out in winter

Occasional blue skies

Breakfast

Cairn Lochan

Long daylight hours just now

A 'Snowhole Experience' has long been on Mikes bucket list of things to do along with a trek up Kili and various other mountain trips this year. The last two days we've enjoyed rather benign Cairngorm conditions. No wind, dry, not cold. We headed out on Tuesday morning and there was some blue skies but the cloud seem to just hang around at the 1100m level. We had plenty of time to dig our home for the night in very hard snow conditions. It was the consistency of concrete! We eventually decided on just enlarging an existing snow home and built on a wee extension. No wind during the night so no drifting problems. The temperature was just above freezing but because of the excellent hard refrozen snow we had no issues with dripping or roof sagging. This morning we were up early to have a few hours of  walking around and up and down the Loch Avon basin area. Still plenty of snow in here and the water running out from the Garbh Uisge and Feithe Buidhe isn't a problem with plenty of depth of snow. Very quiet on the hills, more ptarmigan than folk out. Well done Mike, he is looking for another couple of days out with me next winter, but maybe from the comforts of an Aviemore hotel :)