AVALANCHE AWARE & STEEP GROUND

Coire an lochain

Weakness within the snowpack

...and more weaknesses

Safe on steep, broken ground

Rime and ice caked crags

The Vent area

Coire an Lochain and the Great Slab

Hard work getting through the drifts

Afternoon light

Easier ground

Hard walk out in thedrifts

Sunset

More snow fell overnight and into this morning. Stronger Westerly winds making walking anywhere a more arduous affair. Today Mick and I were focusing on Avalanche Awareness & movement on steep ground on Mick's second day out with me. The SAIS Avalanche forecasts will be up and running again on Friday 15th December. Until then the only decisions on where to go and where not to go are the ones YOU make. The avalanche decision and assessment should always be taken into account on every winter journey. We set off at the Coire Cas carpark and after leaving the ski paraphernalia behind we saw no one all day until back at the carpark. Needless to say the going was tough. No footprints or trench to make life easier today. We went to Coire an Lochain, taking nearly two hours to the lochan's, twice the usual time. Eastern and North Eastern aspects have gained a lot of wind slab since yesterday. We kept to a safe area, under the lower crags in the coire. Some frozen turf and plenty of ice around  here. We dug a couple of test pits to assess the avalanche potential. There was weaknesses deep in the half metre snow pack on a North aspect. The strong winds, snow showers and poor visibility gave way to some lovely spells of clear weather in the afternoon. A fine day on the hill and a great work out for the legs and knees again!