28th Feb, Winter Skills Course, Aviemore

Today I am working in the Cairngorm's on a winter skills course with Jo, Matt and Tony. The weather was better than forecast with the occasional appearance of sun. The temperatures were unseasonally warm and it was very hot on the walk in. There was still enough snow on the headwall of Coire Cas to enable us to practice the basic winter skills although it would have been better if the snow had been slightly harder for cramponing.

After practicing all of the basic movement skills we headed up to the spot height of 1141m before making our way over Cairngorm to Ciste Mhearad. We found very little snow on the summit of Cairngorm but lots of good ice to use our crampons on. We dug an emergency shelter and had lunch in a large snow hole we found in the Coire. Before navigating our way back down to the car park.