Talisman Christmas winter mountaineering course

On Monday I went into Coire na Ciste with Stu, Joe and Phil and we found great snow for practicing all the basic skills - step kicking, step cutting and ice axe braking. As we were quite low down, the snow was soft so it wasn't so great for cramponing but we found a large patch of water ice to gte the feel of how the crampons felt on flattish ice!

I was certainly surprised by how strong the winds were at the Coire cas car park on Tuesday morning. The MWIS forecast had mentioned gusts of 60mph at 900m easing through the day but this felt like 60mph gusts at the car park! We retreated down to Coire na Ciste to dig snow shelters then later in the day when the wind did ease and it became amazingly calm, we walked up to Coire Laoigh Mor and a bit more ice axe braking on some steeper slopes.