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| Braeriach last Friday, 12 January |
The fine spell of conditions and weather continues here in The Cairngorms. Lovely to have some nice settled conditions last week. Richard, Cat, Kyle & Lynsey had booked onto a 4 day winter course. Richard booked this course for him and his friends way back at the end of July. My first winter booking. I love forward thinking folk! They picked a cracking few days for their course.
Day 2 and another cracking blue skies day above yet another temperature inversion. Poor old Aviemore stuck in the clag and fog again! We made the most of the fabulous weather and snow conditions. A day over Ben Macdui and Cairn Gorm.
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| Lunch on Macdui with fabulous views |
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| Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine. Braeriach from ben Macdui |
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| Ski Tourers out |
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| Another Temperature Inversion, Meall a' Bhuachaille above the clouds |
I absolutely love temperature inversions. We get them in the Cairngorms on a regular basis. After summiting Ben Macdui we made our way back across the plateau via the finest viewpoint in the Cairngorms.
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| The team on the summit of Ben Macdui |
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| Serene snowscape |
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| Above the clouds again |
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| Not a bad backdrop! |
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| Nobody at the finest viewpoint |
By the time we got up Cairn Gorm the sun was heading slowly down again. Some fabulous light as we reached the carpark and a another top day out.
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| Cairn Gorm summit at 3.15pm |
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| The team on their second Munro |
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| Loch Morlich |
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| Shame about the windfarm spoiling this one! |
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| Another terrific end to the day |
SATURDAY 13 JANUARY
A change in the weather. Cloud! It was still a beautiful day. Light winds and good visibility in th emorning. Many of the lowe trails are iced up, crampons or no crampons? It's all part of the decision making process on a typical day out in winter. Today the guys wanted to concentrate on movement skills with axe and cramponns again. The snow was perfect, not too icy but definitely crampons on.
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| Coire an Lochain |
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| Twin Burns |
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| Descending techniques |
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| Perfect snow |
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| Up, down and across slopes |
In the afternoon we headed onto the plateau and into the cloud. A great opportunity for some more essential map and compass navigation as the visibility deteriorated.
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| Navigating in poor visibility |
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| Axe arresting on the way down |
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| Axe arresting |
We got some ice axe arresting in on our way back. In a lovely quiet area. Another top day.
SUNDAY 13TH JANUARY
After 3 big days out the team were feeling it a bit in the legs. So they fancied a much easier day. We headed to the friendly Cobbs cafe in Glenmore and looked through the Avalanche reports in detail as well as the BAA app. Then a quick recap on navigation, looking at various map scales and taking bearings. Then it was out to Ryvoan Bothy, at 400m the high point today! There was about 20 folk in the bothy! The most I have ever seen!
It was snowing again to Aviemore level and colder. This fab winter looks set to continue. This wee the temperature up on the tops are plummeting to minus double digits and down in Aviemore it will not go above freezing until Friday. Brilliant.
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| A frozen Lochain Uaine |
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| Snow showers on our way to Ryvoan Bothy |
Thanks to the group. Some great days om the hill in full winter conditions. A top effort and all skilled up for their next adventures.
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