Winter Skills - Cairngorm Meet

Post exped report!

Another great success in the Cairngorms... big thanks to Anna Griffith and Andy Acton.  Read on for the full report!

Watch a You Tube video here!

When: 19th - 26th February 2011

Where: Mondhuie Chalets, nr Aviemore

The Cairngorms winter meet was again a great success.  We didn't get the blue skies and perfect snow of 2010, instead we found the Cairngorms to be rather windy (80mph forecast one day!) with a considerable avalanche hazard forecast for most of the week.  Whilst this meant the higher mountains and climbing routes were out, we did make the most of some of the lower hills and many forest tracks.

The Winter Skills day run by Stuart Carter of Climb365 was a wild day... certainly in at the deep end for those new to Scottish winters!  Very strong winds and horizontal needle sharp snow did nothing to suppress the huge amount of fun we had sliding down snow practicing ice axe arrests, learning to walk with crampons, digging avalanche test pits and exploring snow holes. Everyone, from beginners to those on the course as a refresher, had a great day and will be looking forward to next year's training.

We also attended Glenmore Lodge's very informative avalanche awareness and avoidance lectures and a very inspiring talk on backcountry skiing by Doug Cooper.

Whilst the Cairngorm plateau was experiencing high winds and so looked grey and ominous Strathspey was bright and often sunny.  So we had a couple of good, long days out mountain biking along the forest tracks of Abernethy and Rothiemurchus and got nice and wet and muddy crossing fords and falling over!

A couple of good hill days completed the week with one group putting their navigational skills to the test in white-out conditions above Glen Feshie and another taking a lower route over the Glen Tromie hills where some fairly impressive rime ice had built up.  You can see from our photos and Katie's video what a great week it was!