SNOW SHELTERS, ANCHORS & SNOWMELT

Winter clouds

Snow shelters

Digging

Snowshelter Selfie 

Snow anchors

Snow bollards

Coire an t-Sneachda, afternoon

Ptarmigan

Good clouds

Day two of Sam's course with me today. Sam is off to Chamonix next week on an Alpine climbing trip so this weekend out with me was a introduction to winter mountaineering before he sets off to The Alps. We went back into Coire an t-Sneachda and over to the Moraines. We dug a snow shelter for out morning coffee break. Within 30minutes we had a decent sized cave. Later we used the steeply baked snow in this area to run through some basic rope work and snow anchors. It wasn't quite Alpine weather around mid day. As forecasted the temperatures rose through the morning and it was raining/sleet at 900m. I guess it was probably still snowing on the tops. The weather cleared up as we headed off the hill with some lovely breaks in the cloud. There has been rapid snow melt below 700m but high up there is pretty much still full snow cover. A good freeze tonight and it should be brilliant for snow travel. Thanks to Sam this weekend for great company and all the best to him on his upcoming Alpine trip.