Winter Skills Cairngorms Day 1

I was excited to be attending Glenmore Lodge outdoor activity centre, just outside of Aviemore, situated at the base of the Cairngorms. The course I was enrolled on was about winter skills training and we certainly got winter.

View of Cairngorms from Lodge briefing room

A briefing started the day, 7 of us pupils plus the 2 instructors. If full it is a 1:6 ratio but two instructors for seven gave us more personal attention. The first hour was spent reviewing a selection of the available websites that gave us the weather information required to make today as safe as possible. The decision taken was to walk into Coire na Sneachda, exciting a first for me.

My kit before adding extra clothes

But before going out it was a check of the gear we needed to have compared to what we had and anything that was missing could be picked up from their fantastically equipped store.
Ready to go and it was a short drive to the ski centre.

Lodge Van

As soon as we left the van at the ski centre and went to the path it was time for crampon use. The bridge and path were sheer ice. I had never used full crampons before and what an eye opener, once I got them on, total grip.

Crampons on route directly ahead

Navigation up to and into Coire na Sneachda involved some of us leading for a while, a stop to study the topography, both from our eyes and from the map, taking a correct bearing then onwards and so on. The weather regularly opened up and closed in again giving superb glimpses of the surroundings. Also at times other groups could be seen, some rock climbing, some skiing, other walkers a reasonably busy place for a wild Monday. A party of 10 or so were already strung out climbing the crags up to Cairn Gorm. I don’t think that I would have the strength for that.

Coire Na Sneachda

I took my gloves off for a couple of minutes whilst retying my crampons and when I put my gloves back on I realised how cold it was, my right thumb was painful but recovered quickly, a good lesson. The forecast showed 20-30mph gusts with a temperature of -2 but a wind chill factor of -20. Cold as it was I was pleased that my layering system worked perfectly not needing to add or remove clothing.
All of the snaps in this blog were from my phone as the cold had affected my main camera, it did thaw out for use the next day.

Crampon walking practice

Crampon walking on hilly snowy terrain was a lot of fun. Practising front and side foot techniques very useful.
Crampon and ice axe techniques on snow wall climbing was even more fun. Maybe the best of the day for me, felt like a mountaineer climbing Everest lol.
The winds really picked up at this stage, picking up and swirling the loose snow into white out conditions. Goggles on and they were a godsend, I would not have coped without them. A snow hole was dug to prove its life saving effect from the wind.

Rocky top of Fiacail a Choire Chais

Next was an uphill steep walk up the crags of Fiacail a Choire Chais. This was quite gruelling as it was on deep snow and rocky terrain. The rocks being dangerous for the crampons. It was tough going and energy sapping as each step was knee deep into the soft snow, a zig zag pattern adopted and a lot of heavy breathing.
Up and over the ridge and now ice axe techniques including stop arrest whilst walking without crampons was also a lot of fun.

Team talk

The final section of the day was a long walk back to the ski centre without crampons. Again some of the ground was firm then although it looked the same you plunged straight into knee deep soft snow hollows. This was tough and gave me added respect for snow covered terrain particularly as darkness was falling as we reached the van.
Back to the lodge for coffee and cake but don’t linger the day was not over. A lecture on navigation for an hour, quick dinner then another lecture on avalanches and time for bed, wow a long but very different and exciting day, you only live once.