WINTER SKILLS, CAIRNGORMS

After the Alpine conditions recently it was more like a normal Scottish winter day today. With slightly milder temperatures over the last couple of days and a few snow showers yesterday the snowpack has changed slightly with some fresh windslab in some areas. Today I was delivering a one day winter skills to four members of the Highland Hillwalking Club based in Inverness. We headed over to the quiet side of the Cairngorms and on the eastern side of Lurchers Crag. We had the mountain to ourselves and enjoyed some breaks in the cloud and some sunshine. We covered lots of vital skills and had a journey around the hills.

AND YET ANOTHER STUNNING DAY IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Cairn Gorm from Meall a' Bhuachaille

Karen enjoying the expansive views of The Cairngorms

One of the best view points of The Cairngorm range from Meall a' Bhuachaille

Braeriach

Loch Morlich

Once again it was another fabulous day in The Cairngorms. Blue skies and light breezes the order of the day. Karen and I had a liesurley start at mid day with a walk up to Meall a' Bhuachaille. It's one of the finest view points of the Northern Cairngorms from the summit. Tomorrow looking a bit windier and some precipitation but back to fine weather by the weekend

........AND ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Laurie & Paul doing some tricky navigation

Who ever said pointing your camera into the sun was a very bad technique?

Super cloud formations again today

and more cloud inversions

Breaking photography rules again

Rime

Yet another glorious sunny day in The Cairngorms. Overnight cold temperatures and a warm sun in the daytime with clear skies and you could be fooled into thinking you were somewhere else. Today I was out with Laurie & Paul. The guys were brushing up on their navigation today. How come you never get bad weather when having navigation days out on the hills? We headed up the long north ridge up toward Cairn Gorm. This is a much nicer and quieter way to the Munro summit if you want a bit of solitude away from the skiing areas. There were some wonderful cloud formations once more today. Are you fed up of the sun yet? Well unfortunately there is more of the same tomorrow :)

CASTLEGATES GULLY, ALPINE CAIRNGORMS!

The Shelterstone Crag

Start of Castlegates Gully, fab snow conditions

A lovely long grade I route aamongst stunning scenery

The approch into the Loch Avon basin, Hells Lum looking fantastic

Gully delights

The white spots near the chopper are petrified ptarmigan!

Loch Avon basin

Cairn Toul & Angels Peak (Sgur an Lochan Uaine)

Once again the Cairngorms got the best of the weather today. Wall to wall blue skies, light winds, shades and even better the snow is fantastic! Castlegates Gully lies in a wonderful setting next to The Sheltersone Crag. Remote, beautiful scenery, a big route, all the things I look for for a special day out. Quickly leaving the crowds at the Coire Cas ski centre I ventured over the plateau in  stunning sunny skies. I like to approach The Loch Avon basin from the Garbh Uisge and drop down from here. This route you get fab views of Hells Lum on the descent. Amazing snow in the basin and its firming up nicely, no more leg breaking snow! The scenery just gets better and better as you approach the foot of the gully. Snow is fantastic with an overnight freeze and it was wonderful cramponing all the way up. No cornice issues. I left late morning and was busy photographing on the approach which meant a 5pm finish at the top of the route. Another beautiful sunset back along the plateau. These are days to treasure. More to come over the next few days! Enjoy!

BROAD GULLY, STOB COIRE NAN LOCHAN, GLENCOE

Another great day with the Swiss mountain family. Sadly Nathan not with us today as he was busy studying in The Glencoe Hotel so just Michele and Sam out with me today. WE headed to Glencoe and we  had a shorter day so they could get their flight back in time. Broad Gully fitted the bill. A nice Grade 1 Gully on Stob Coire Nan Lochan. It was much cloudier today and we were in the clag at about 850m. Great snow with the overnight temperatures freezing it up a tad more. I've been up and down Broad Gully many times but this one was probably the best conditions with hard snow, not many boot prints and we never saw anyone in it (its usually busy)! Once again the guys loved it and Sam fancied Dorsal Arete next time. We were quickly down at the road again in the wonderful trench through the deep snow that is running all the way down the coire. Fastest time for me ever on this, we had a return time of 4.5 hours so plenty of time for a coffee at the hotel before farewell to the guys on what was a great weekend. They may be back again!

NO.4 GULLY BEN NEVIS

The team high up in N0.4 Gully

Lots of ice

Heading into Coire na Ciste

Great sunset about to begin

The guys getting excited

More ice

Great descent down The Red Burn

Coire na Ciste and CMD

Sun setting over Mull

Father Michele and sons Sam and Nathan from Switzerland are out with me this weekend for a couple of days winter mountaineering. They have bags of Alpine climbing and skiing experience but this was their first taste of the Scottish hills. They picked a fine weekend to see the mountains at their best. With high pressure and sunny skies today they got to see Ben Nevis in splendid form. We ventured up No. 4 Gully today. Thankfully some folk had made tracks in the soft snow up into Coire na Ciste so not too much hard work! Iced up crags all around and rimed rocks above 1000m. The cornice exit out of No.4 is steep but it has a notch which helps getting up the final 2 metres. We went to the summit and were treated to a beautiful sunset on the descent. A fine effort and they loved the day. Good times.

ANOTHER DAY OF NAVIGATION

Alan on the micro navigation

Another day of near white out conditions

A well rimed Fingers Ridge

Plenty of climbing action in Coire an t-sneacda today

Cornices

Strathspey still frozen

A day of cold weather but with light winds and no precipitation it was a very pleasant day to be out on the hills. There is still much unconsolidated snow making walking very tiring and time consuming in places. The Cairngorm plateau has an excellent cover of powder snow as Alan and I found out today. Alan is planning on going through the Winter Mountain Leader course this winter and he was wanting a day of some navigation and an insight into the scheme before embarking on the process of training and assessment. We also covered avalanche awareness and looked at snow hole locations on the plateau. Alan already has his summer ML so his navigation is excellent. Winter of course is a bit different and with the almost white out conditions today he was well tested, this coupled with hard going in soft snow makes for challenging mountain days at the moment.

NAVIGATION DAY ON SGOR GOAITHE

Nigel on the summit of Sgor Gaoithe

Enjoying the wonderful summit views

Almost a view of Braeriach

Big cornices

Big areas of neve on some aspects

Heres the cloud again

Most of the day was like this, in the cloud bubble

Another very cold day with temperatures around minus 10 dgrees on the hill (thats a guess-when my nose feels cold its double figure minus). Nigel was back out with me today and he wanted to build on his already very good summer navigation skills. We went to Sgor Goaithe in the Feshie hills were the snow cover is right down to the carpark. Hard going in the drifts and we were the only folk on the hill today. Great conditions for Nigel with cloud cover most of the day with a very cold but light NW wind. White out at times. We were rewarded when we got to the summit, the clouds cleared for a few minutes revealing wonderful views with the east face of the mountain plastered in fresh snow and huge cornices. The toughest part of the day was the energy sapping plough back along the glen with the lovely summer path well banked wit soft, knee deep snow. All good stuff to keep you fit through the winter months :)