FIRST WINTER STEPS

A complete change in the weather today after the last few Alpine like days it was back to low cloud, wind and much colder conditions. Return clients Linda & Chris, who have their annual winter skills course with me, this year their brought their 9 year old son Issac along for his first taste of Scottish winter hillwalking. Friends of theirs Christine & Reace are also with them for the two day course. We headed into a busy Coire an t-Sneachda and found an area where it was relatively quiet, below the Windy Col area. The snow is all hard and frozen so crampon technique right from the word go. It was a very fast and hard ice axe arrest session, which was temporarily held up whilst a guy stopped right on our runway looking very lost, he was in fact looking for his climbing partner and asking me where the Runnel was and Coire an t -Sneachda! We found some old snow shelters for lunch time and another axe arrest session on more forgiving ground on the way down. The sun broke out and cloud lifted near the end of the day.