WINTER NAVIGATION

 

winter navigation 

For Stuart & Peter's second day in the Cairngorms with me we concentrated the day on navigation. This is the 'no. 1 winter skill' of course, Summer aswell as winter. With another windy day on the high Cairngorms we chose to head over to the Sgorans above beautiful Glenfeshie. These hills offer lots of featureless terrain to hone your map and compass skills.

Still plenty of snow to lower levels

Goggles on at 600m

There was still snow down to Glenfeshie level when we arrived,  the temperatures were forecast to rise during the day. Good visibility at 9am. Above 600m the snow was drifting in the strong winds, goggles on. Map out.

Difficult walking in strong winds and icy rocks

Rime iced terrain 

Map and compass 

On the first top it was poor visibility,  drifting snow and strong winds. Great navigation conditions. For our morning break we headed to the 'notch'. This is a great feature, being one of those wonderful melt water channels that collects drifting snow on a regular basis. Good spot for snow shelters and snow holing. We got behind a deep, high drift where it was completely windless. 

Hasty pit

30cm sheer

Out of the wind

The notch

After coffee we did some avalanche assessment and then found a nice slope for more axe techniques and some axe arrests. 

No crampons required 

Up and down

Wind behind us on the descent 

With the high winds we decided to opt out of going to the highest summit, Sgor Gaoithe,  and instead we took a route down with the winds on our backs, far more pleasant!

Warming up on the descent 

Late afternoon sun and warmer at lower elevations 

Late afternoon sun and melting snow as we reached the treeline again. Don't panic,  a lot more cold weather and snowfall the next few days.

A top two days with Peter and Stuart who are now armed with lots of essential winter skills to head out on their own winter adventures.