Saturday 5 February 2011

Better conditions than expected in the Cairngorms today.

The gang.

Essential foot work, brick hard water ice over grass!


Today was a pleasant surprise for everyone! Howard and I were working for HPL on our annual Winter Mountaineering weekend for Manchester University. We had expected high winds and a high windchill but we got spring like conditions, fantastic! Every where we walked we found solid neve or water ice on the west faces and interesting wind slabbed areas on East facing aspects, ideal for skills and snow pack inspection and essential foot work skills.
We get to play with ropes tomorrow!
One of the students reported he soloed, Hidden Chimney, Broken Gully, Wave Length and Invernookie today and apparently the neve was perfect , good effort!