SNOW PLOUGHING & NAVIGATION

The road up Glen Banchor, quite pleasant

Poor visibility at 700m

'Leep frogging'

Windy and ploughing, no so pleasant

Snow showers

Far more wildlife than humans today

Which is snow and which are rocks?

Last blizzard before the road

Glen Banchor in sun

Another snowy, cold an windy ole day in The Cairngorms. A lot of snow has been falling over the ast couple of days. When the weather clears it should look fabulous! But until then it's more battling in the elements and deep snow ploughing in the unconsolidated snow. Last day on Debbi & Alex's course this week. Today it was the number 1 'Winter essential skills'. Navigation. The Monadhliath hills are perfect terrain for honing in on your map and compass skills. Much of this vast areais featureless in summer and even more so in winter. With high winds forecasts for the bigger Cairngorm mountains it made good sense to visit these hills today, being that bit lower. Even so it was a struggle in the winds above about 600m. Gusting over 50mph, coupled with deep snow made for another challenging day out. The guys did a great job of getting to the lower summit of about 800m. We descended the eastern slopes in almost white out conditions. All good for that number 1 skill in winter. Did I mention that already? Yes it's not all about axes and crampons. We saw no other humans on the hill today but plenty of red deer and mountain hare. Top day out. Less windy tomorrow!