02-03-11, Cairngorms - Winter Skills

Day 2 with the Royal Navy. We headed to Glen Feshie, up through the impressive Coire Garbhlach (photo above) and on to the summit of Carn Ban Mor. We concentrated on all things navigation. Interpreting contours, taking bearings, timings and distances, pacings and off course slope aspect, which changes quite dramatically several times in the coire. A lot of snow has disappeared however we found some steeper snow slopes to ascend at the top, which gave good value! As to be expected the snow wasn't particularly hard with the recent higher temperature but the winds were not as strong as forecast.

19-02-10, Cairngorms - Winter Skills

Today we headed to Glen Feshie. Final day of a week long winter skills course working for Snowdonia Adventures. Consolidating experiences of the week, we ascended Carn Ban Mor and walked across the plateau. This morning the sun was out and it felt very hot, down to thermal layers while walking in. As we approached the summit plateau the clag came in and gave the team a chance to sample navigating in a white-out once more this week (see guys the Scottish winter isn't just blue skies and sun cream!). Lots of surface hoar still present and no wind.

31-01-10, Cairngorms - Winter Skills

Another cold dry day in the Cairngorms. I was working for Walkabout Scotland again with Sarah and Scott on the second day of a winter skills course. We headed to Glen Feshie and ascended Carn Ban Mor. It was windy at times but didn't really snow despite dark grey skies. The cloud base was at about 850m so meant we had to use various navigational techniques to find the summit and the snow hole site. We looked at pacing, timings and walking on bearings. We managed to find some steep sections of neve which had formed from snow being blown in over the last couple of weeks, allowing us to practice front pointing and daggering with the axe (right Scott). We also dug out some emergency shelters in the snow drifts, both Sarah and Scott immediately appreciated it is a lot easier with a snow shovel than just your axe!

If you would like to gain some winter skills to stay safe in the mountains in winter this year visit www.pjmountains.co.uk/winter.html.