BEN MACDUI, WHITE OUT

 

The team in white out conditions 

Third and final day with the lovely Dutch group this week. We've had some great conditions since Monday. We finished on a high with an ascent of Ben Macdui integrated with some testing navigation on the UK's second highest mountain. With a full covering of snow above 900m and some low cloud it gave some great scope to hone the navigation. Navigation is, of course, the no.1 skill for the mountains,  Winter and Summer. 

Good visibility and snow cover on Lurchers Ridge 

Coire an Lochain 

Poor visibility at Lochan Buidhe 

With light winds forecast the team were quite keen to get a full day in on the high tops. The plateau on Ben Macdui is huge and featureless. Throw in some deep snow cover and low cloud and you get great conditions to hone map and compass skills.

Heading into the white room 

Happy navigators 

First on the summit today

From Lochan Buidhe to the top of Ben Macdui it was in a white out. The team did a brilliant job navigating perfectly. We reached the top just in time for our picnic. We lingered about to see if a view opened up and it did!

Bod an Deamhain & Sgurr an Lochain Uaine 

The team at THE viewpoi

Map and compass 

Descending 

As we made our way down the cloudbase did lift a bit and much easier navigation. 

Better visibility 

White

We were back at the Coire Cas carpark before 4pm. A round trip of six and a  half hours, that included the navigation. That's a ery respectable time in winter! 

A brilliant 3 days. Great stuff.