Winter skills in Coire Cas

Yesterday I was out with Talisman's Nottingham University Munro Pineapple Society Introductory Mountaineering Skills and even though it was a windy day with very little visibility, we covered loads of skills and got just a bit wet!

Today the visibilty was great with blue skies and still windy but maybe we Peter, Martin and I were a bit more sheltered. This was their first day of Talisman's Winter Skills course and a good introduction to Scottish winter. The snow was great for cramponing and ice axe braking and we had a lot of laughs!

Grooved Rib, Coire an t-Sneachda

Ron and I went into Coire an t-Sneachda today and climbed Grooved Rib with lots of spindrift and a bit more wind in the afternoon than we expected!

La Grave

La Grave - I've been out in La Grave for the past two weeks ice climbing and it has been so good!
The morning we left we had to dig the car out so for the skiing, the prospects looked fantastic once the avalanche risk goes down!
Ron has selected some of the best photos here http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/blog/mountain_diary.htm

Cairngorm - putting winter skills into practice

Today Debbie, James, Nick, Tim and I did lots of navigation and found a suitable place to put into use the skills we all practiced yesterday. We also found a large, cosy snowhole which was just perfect for a lunch break.

We had a dig around in the snow and found old neve with an icy layer above then windslab on top of that. It was great for climbing up and down through mini cornices before the mist came down and gave us the ideal conditions for navigating over to the summit of Cairngorm.

Winter skills in the sun

Debbie, James, Tim and Nick enjoying the sun on the plateau after practicing step kicking, step cutting, ice axe braking and crampon skills.
Happy New Year.