Saturday, 10 February 2018

WINTER SKILLS DAY 1

The team heading up to Windy Col 
Lunch time snow shelters
Crampon fitting in the breeze
Neve hig up
Step Cutting
Coire an t-Sneachd
Snow shelters
Busy in Jacob's Ladder!
Hard work this digging
Temperatures rose in the early hours of Saturday, mild temperatures an freezing level around 900m.  The severe winds overnight had eased significantly by the time we headed out on the hill. This weekend I have a group of 7 great folk out with me. A mixture of Cotswold Outdoor staff and customers with the other half of the group individual bookings. Gavin was helping me out and getting some shadowing experience for his Winter ML assessment in March. Before heading out on the mountain we had a group meeting looking at kit, weather reports and avalanche reports. On the way into a busy Coire an t-Sneachda we looked at route choice and avalanche awareness. For lunch it was a digging session at the moraines for some snack time snow shelters. In the afternoon we made our way up to Windy Col. Step cutting, good foot and axe work to 'the cave' where we then donned the crampons. The wind was swirling about with plenty of spindrift in the coire. Plenty of folk out today. Jacob's Ladder must have had about 10 people in it this morning. Almost a queue! Well it is half term weeks and lots of folk out enjoying the fantastic winter. After reaching a windy Windy Col we headed across to 1141m and down the Fiacaill Chais. Finishing off with some axe arresting. Good day to be out and all the team had great fun, learning lots of vital skills.





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