07-02-10, Cairngorms - Winter Skills

Day 2 of a PJ Mountains Winter Skills course. Today Jon, Tim and myself walked into Coire an t-Sneachda. It was a lot colder today freezing level down to 500m. We found hard neve to perfect crampon technique and plenty of snow to dig emergency shelters. There were a few periods of whiteout visibility, which gave us good practice in walking on bearings and pacing distances. We ascended windy gap to point 1141 and returned down Fiacaill Choire Chais. Many climbers out in the coire today mainly gully lines. The dropping freezing level has firmed up the snow pack and will make climbing conditions ace.

The Ptarmigan we saw whilst walking in were very tame, there were 9 altogether hanging out and not too bothered to have groups of climbers and walkers going past within 5m.