WINTER NAVIGATION DAY

Nice morning

Navigation begins

No wind for elevenses

Brushing up on the ice axe work

10 minutes later and Antony does a self arrest for real

More compass work

Easy navigation

Day two out with Jimmy and Antony. Today the guys were keen to pick up some navigation skills in winter conditions. The forecast was a bit uncertain for today. The Cairngorms seemed to be right in the centre of the low pressure system so it was very pleasant today, only very light winds and we hardly had any snowfall. We headed up the northern slopes of Cairn Gorm from the Ciste car park. It's a great area for practising your map reading and navigation skills, the long, easy angled slopes are quite featureless. Later in the day we did some ice axe arresting, 20 minutes later Antony demonstrated a classic ice axe arrest for real! Well done. We were down before dark today so just a short day out :) . Well done to the guys and great company. They are planning a trip to summit Mount Elbrus this summer. The skills and conditions we had this weekend were far more demanding and more technical than anything on the highest summit in Europe!