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| Fabulous winter conditions |
January is traditionally the stormiest month in winter, especially here in The Cairngorms. Wind speeds of 60 - 100mph on the high tops are not uncommon, indeed some may say 'normal'. Dealing with high winds and poor visibility along with deep snow are part and parcel of Scottish mountains. If you cast your mind back to last winter in January it was quite different. For much of the month the mountain tops were very calm. At the moment were in a normal January stormy cycle.
Tarmachan Mountaineering prides itself on offering a very flexible approach to course content and (if possible) a chance to reschedule a booking to go with a better weather day. Not for the first time this season have I offered this. For Kaite & John they had just one day out with me. Originally they booked the Tuesday for their course. With a very stormy forecast in prospect on the 4th January we had a chat and rescheduled it to the following day, 5th January. A much calmer day was in prospect.
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| Back to snow ploughing again |
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| Visibility at 800m |
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| Deep snow at 850m |
There had been more snow and more wind yesterday. The hills once again back to what a typical January scene should be. The snowline was down at Aviemore level and the temperatures dropped significantly. Cairn Gorm summit was forecasted to be hovering around minus 6 C at midday.
Katie & John had previously been on a 2-day winter skills course a couple of years ago and have also been on an intro to winter climbing course. We had a chat in the morning to see what they wanted to get out of todays course. Navigation and a recap on essential hill skills to be self sufficient in the winter mountains was their priority. Certainly was the right day for it. The cloudbase struggled to get any higher than about 850m for the vast majority of the time. It was hard work in the deep and unconsolidated snow below 1000m if you were not on a popular walking route up the hill.
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| Great conditions |
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| Mother nature is wonderful |
We had a good chat and discussion on avalanche awareness and assessment, working in conjunction with the avalanche report. Using this we made a nice journey onto the Cairngorm plateau, passing some fabulous close by scenery, an alternative to vast sweeping panoramas!. The higher you got today the visibility worsened. Perfect conditions for navigation in the afternoon!
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| Axe and crampons on old snow and new |
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| Visibility at 1000m and icy |
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| The winds eased off by mid afternoon |
The high winds of 40mph on the tops gradually lowered by afternoon. We spent the last couple of hours on navigation from our high point on the plateau. The No.1 winter 'skill' of course. You can't get anywhere if you can't navigate.
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