Tuesday 7 January 2014

Better weather (dry pants, 1 wet pair of gloves)

Today was the second day of the 2 day Intro. to Winter Skills for Glenmore Lodge and we headed in to Coire an t Sneachda. The snow was icey around the car park so we took the opportunity to cut steps and look at cramponing right there before heading to the moraines. It was breezy and the snow was moist underfoot with only light precipitation.
The snowpack was shallower than I'd hoped for at the moraines but we made the worlds largest shovel up, dug a walking rutschblock and talked about the limitations of different types of pits and admired a fine ribena snow profile which picked out a lot of layers in the pack.
Avalanche activity visible left of Alladin's Couloir, plenty of droopy cornices around and the crags look buried!
The initial pour
 After 5 minutes
 A big pile of snow
A big shelter

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