Ciste Mhearad snowhole trip

KC and I navigated our way up in the low cloud from the Coire na Ciste car park around Coire Laoigh Mor to drop down into Ciste Mhearad. Intermittent breaks in the cloud gave us some views of the long queues of skiers enjoying the fresh snow.

When we reached Ciste Mhearad, we found a suitable spot to start digging and then we dug and dug and dug! Underneath the newly drifted snow, we came across lots of icy layers and we didn't quite make the progress we wanted so finding a suitable pre-dug hole nearby, we changed our plan and renovated it instead.

Some shouts later on alerted us to the arrival of some neighbours, Joe and Andy, who moved into another large snowhole that was also already there.

Plenty of hot food and warm sleeping bags meant that the cold night was a comfortable one. Apparently it was -5c at the Ptarmigan restaurant in the morning. Overnight the snow had been blowing about creating big drifts all around us and some breaks in the cloud showed a beautiful, white world under the blue skies.

The wind was picking up as we walked out and visibility was coming and going as we returned to the car.