Monday 16 February 2009

Winter Mountaineering Course




Day 1 of a 5 day Winter Mountaineering Course in the Cairngorms today. I took our team of 4 into Sneachda to review winter skills and footwork. We joined many other parties at the flat ice and looked at preventing and arresting slips and slides on the soft wet snow at the toe of Fiacaill Buttress. From there we made an ascent of the headwall between 0.5 gully and the goat track, carried on round the coire rim to point 1141 and down the Fiacaill of Cas. Soggy snow and wet ice today for the most part- the odd firmer patch near 0.5 gully. Hannah reported a strong updraft in Hidden Chimney which was doing a good impression of a small waterfall, John found good snow at the top of The Runnel and Kirk followed footprints up the soft snow in Central Gully. There were a also number of teams on Goat Track Gully and Red Gully (watch out for this end of the crags during a thaw- there is always a lot of loose rock poised in the area of these 2 gullys waiting for the ice to release it when it melts). Today I was working for Glenmore Lodge.

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