PERFECT SNOW SHOE-ING CONDITIONS

Coire an Lochain

Wonderful snow shoeing conditions

Fiacaill Ridge

Walking out of the Coire Cas car park this morning into NO WIND! Wonderful views and superb snow. It was fantastic snow conditions today for the snow shoes, I was almost floating over toward Coire an Lochain. At the moment you can take a direct line anyway into the Northern Corries as there is so much depth of snow and no danger of falling into any burns. The sun was peeping out of Coire an Lochain and the mountains are well plastered. Many folk heading up to the Ficaill Ridge and SARDA folk and their dogs were out training lower down the hill. The cloud gradually rolled in as forecasted. Another stormy night and tomorrow but Sunday looking good. Avalanche conditions will no doubt be back up to HIGH on most aspects by tomorrow. Some big cornices around and much wind slab.  

 

Sunshine slowly giving way to cloud over the Northern Corries

 

WINDY TIMES AGAIN

The snow gates at Glenmore were soon closed again this morning due to drifting and worsening wind conditions. Plan 'B' was a shorter days walk up Meall a' Bhuachaille. A great wee hill and giving some fine views of the main Cairngorm Plateau, but today the cloud came in quickly after a blue skies early morning. By early afternoon the snow came on down to Aviemore level. There looks to be light at the end of the tunnel-Friday and the weekend looking like we may get some brighter weather and less wind :)

PACING UP & DOWN A VERY WHITE BEN NEVIS

Kris moving up along side the Red Burn

A HUGE amount of snow just past the Red Burn crossing on the Ben's Mountain Path

The vis was 'reasonable' here at 1000m

The vis here at 1100m was not

Summit views

Rimed up compass frequently today

With a poor forecast  it wasn't really a day for the CMD arête onto Ben Nevis. Kris was keen as mustard and told me beforehand he loves a challenge but we decided that just getting to the summit today by the easiest route would be a challenge in itself. We set off in the dry and even The Mamores were visible earlier in the morning. We reached the Red Burn and here there is an amazing amount of snow banked up just after the burn crossing. We took a more direct route straight up beside the burn. The wee waterfall here is completely snowed up too. After reaching 980m we were in a white out all the way. From here to the summit I paced the whole route in the worse nav conditions I have ever had on Ben Nevis. When we reached the summit I offered Kris the option of descending down the CMD, he politely refused! It was even more challenging descending as now the snow came on and the SW winds had picked up. Soon we were well and truly rimed up, continually de-icing my compass and goggles just to throw another challenge at us. In conditions like this I would always, always rely on my compass and mountain knowledge, not a GPS ( I don't actually own one). A great day out and well done to Kris on his first Scottish winter experience, he tells me the Polish mountains seldom get covered in cloud!

WINTER SKILLS UNDER THE BEN

Kris descending below the Douglas Boulder

Moving on steeper ground

Shelter now and again

Axe and wind technique

Carn Dearg Buttress just visible today

Kris is out with me over the weekend, a day of winter skills with the aim of traversing the CMD arête onto Ben Nevis on day two. We set off to the CIC Hut this morning with not a great weather forecast, snow showers constant and that now common factor, high winds. It started snowing above 500m and head wind becoming stronger as we approached the CIC Hut. It was nice the door was left open so we could sort our gear out. I've never seen so much snow banked up over the hut. We faced the storm, spin drift, snow and poor visibility and headed under the Douglas Boulder for some kind of shelter. Another one of those days were communication a struggle as Kris got to grips with the basics of axe and crampon technique, along with staying up right. After lunch we headed over to the other side of the Allt a' Mhuillin to see if we could find a bit more shelter, turning our back to the wind and traversing across the slopes of Carn Mor Dearg. Not much in the way of views today! A group we passed did well getting up Ledge Route earlier on.

MAGICAL MACDUI DAY

Siobhan and Darren were out with me today, this was Darren's Christmas present from Siobhan an what a cracker of a day it was.  they picked probably one of the best days this winter! Light winds but a stubborn cloud sat over The Cairngorms until just after mid day when everything was suddenly revealed in all it's magnificent glory. I had my compass out all the way from Coire an Lohain to the summit of Ben Macdui, almost white out at times. As we descended the cloud was starting to shift. I took them over toward The top of Hell's Lum Crag for the view of the gem of the Cairngorms- Shelter Stone Crag and Loch Avon. Wonderful late afternoon light around the top of the Northern Corries to end a beautiful day. Please can we have more? Over in Fort William tonight for a couple days work on The Ben.

FIACAILL FRENZY

Busy on the Fiacaill Ridge

Quiet in Sneachda

Even quieter in Coire an Lochain

Lovely clear views this morning

One hour later and it's still busy!

Excellent snow cover down to 600m

Two light wind and dry days in one week! How blessed we are at last. It was a glorious morning in The Cairngorms. I had a very leisurely star at 11am and headed up to The Fiacaill Ridge, thinking by the time I got there it would be quiet, how wrong was I! I counted over 20 folk in the short space of time I was at the final climbing section high up. Looked like everyone had been waiting for the lull in the wild weather and it was the only place to go! Well fair enough it is a spectacular spot in The Cairngorms and so easy to stroll along to. It was just a magical spot to have lunch and take a few photos. There is still a large amount of wind slab on the western side of the actual ridge line. Wonderful snow cover all the way down to the car park and just great to be out enjoying the sun and clear skies, more to come tomorrow too! It's worth going through the pain barrier of many weeks of wild winds and low cloud to enjoy the scene we had today.

SUNSHINE, LIGHT WINDS ON SGOR GAOITHE

Beautiful afternoon light and superb snow

Ian enjoying the sun

The views down to Glen Feshie

Wonderful snow banks

My foot wear of choice today

Descending in beautiful late afternoon light

The view west from Geal Carn

Ian and I had a fantastic day on Sgor Gaoithe. The forecast of much lighter winds and some sunshine was enough incentive to get out on the tops today. We had a relaxing day on Sgor Gaoithe, after leaving the tree line the sun soon made an appearance and fab views all morning. The final 150m to the summit was disappointing as we were engulfed in thick cloud and near white out conditions. The summit juts out into the void so care taken here, pacing involved to gain the top. After more micro navigation to get to the Sgoran Dubh Mor summit we were blasted with a chill wind and wonderful rimed up slopes and rocks. On our descent we made a good circuit by traversing Geal Carn , another deleted Munro summit. The clouds once again lifted and some wonderful atmospheric light, snow, cloud and wind made it the best part of the day, words cannot describe and indeed photos can never do justice to the wonderful winter scenes like we enjoyed today. I took the snow shoes out today and they performed brilliantly with perfect conditions on the slabby snow areas. The descent off Geal Carn being the best, in summer this is a very rocky and boulder descent but today it was magic in a setting sun. Well yet another wee blip in the wild weather, back to the norm tomorrow!

LOTS OF SUN, SNOW, FUN AND BLOWN ABOUT BYNACK MOR

What a lovely sight, blue skies and sun (and usual wild winds).

Any activity today was a chore, even stopping for a snack before final summit cone

We avoided the steeper summit cone section and traversed around at a lower angle-spot the windslab

The guys did well today, we reached over 950m before the wind won and we headed down in lovely sunshine

Calmer at lower altitudes

Another desperate weather forecast with high winds on the tops but the team today were up for a mountain day and putting their skills from yesterday into action. Bynack Mor is an isolated Munro and being in the shadow of the main Cairngorm plateau it is often in better weather, just like today. We enjoyed a lot of blue skies and sunshine and great views with only the odd, short snow shower. The winds on the broad, long shoulder leading up to the summit cone wasn't too bad to cope with, even though several of the team and myself were blown down a couple of times. Picking themselves up they weren't deterred and we went for the summit. The final ridge section was just a little too much, but we were almost at the summit. A great weekend with really nice folk and good fun. Well done to Sam, Richard, Wayne & Jon for enduring some pretty high winds and tough conditions in the mountains, all good experience for tackling the Scottish mountain in winter. Brilliant.

ANOTHER WILD WINTER SKILLS WEEKEND

Another ski goggle day

The guys coping in the severe conditions and still smiling

Nice views at the Ciste car park today

Our 'sheltered' area for donning crampons

Richard still smiling

The ski access road

New month, same weather patterns, wind and snow and lots of it! Sam, Richard, Wayne & Jon are out with me this weekend on a two day winter skills course. Their adventure in the white stuff started on the A9 travelling up last night, stuck for over 2 hours on the snow affected road. The snow gates at Glenmore were closed this morning and there was no skiing up at Cairngorm today. We walked up the road to the Ciste car park with the plan of getting some form of shelter in Coire na Ciste. The visibility at the car park was almost nil and that's the way it stayed for the rest of the day. We got a wee bit of shelter behind the Ciste Crag and here there was plenty of snow and bits of ice for the group to get some axe & crampon skills in. The 50+ mph winds were blowing a lot of snow about and it was a high wind chill today. As always in these conditions the group learnt quickly to get crampons on, sort gear, etc before getting frost nipped fingers! There is a Cat. HIGH avalanche forecast across most Highland mountain areas on northerly aspects so care needed in any planned routes. Hoping for a bit less wind tomorrow for a good hill day and the guys to put all their skills into action.

LIATHACH, COIRE NA CAIME - ALPINE SPLENDOUR

First rays of sun hitting the tops of The Northern Pinnacles, Liathach

The summit of Spidean a' Choire Leith & Am Fasarinen

Left-hand Trinity Gully

The Trinity Gullies & Northern Pinnacles, Coire na Caime

Idylic camp spot at Lochan Coire na Caime

Am Fasarinen

Bell's Buttress

With one of those rare treats this winter, a clear skies, cold and windless forecast albeit for just 24 hours or so, I headed up to that most wonderful of areas - Torridon. The NW was set to be the best place in the country to enjoy these conditions yesterday and toady. I took winter camping gear and headed up into Coire na Caime on the north side of Liathach, my second favourite mountain after An Teallach. Yesterday there was still some clouds on the very tops but dry with some late afternoon sun. I set the tent up at an idyllic spot at 500m by Loch Coire na Caime. A star filled night and temperatures slowly dipping to below freezing here. Nest morning dawned beautiful so an early start and I headed up to climb Left-hand Trinity Gully which finishes up between the Munro summit of Mullach an Rathain and the final summit of the Northern Pinnacles. The whole scene is Alpine and just wonderful and remote. There was still some wind slab and cornice at the top of the gully which was a bit disconcerting so in the end it was just a wander around the corrie which was just as enjoyable. Coming back down into Glen Torridon in clear blue skies and warm sun, fantastic. More snow and wind to come, it was a fantastic respite!