Invernookie

Today I was working on Glenmore Lodge's Winter Climbing Festival. As wells as the Instructed teams there were 2 guided parties out in our group today, one pair got to climb with sponsored North Face Athlete Hansjoerg Auer. The other pair were stuck with me! At least both parties had access to lots of great kit from The North Face and Lyon Equipment.
We beat in against the warm wind and as hoped when we looked around the corner we could see that Fiacaill Buttress was still white looking. Hans took his team up the Seam while I did Invernookie behind a team from Leeds Uni. A party climbed Seamstress and another team roped up and moved together with little or no gear up Fiacaill Couloir- rather them than me :-(
The cracks were pretty iced up today and the old rime had turned to detached ice on the faces, snow was soft and thawing but at least we were out of the wind until we topped out. It hit 2 degrees and 90mph at one point on top of Cairngorm today.

 Big cornices

 Still snowy but getting blacker

 Neil and Tim patient on the first stance

 Hans bringing up Tomasz and Sarah

 3 people, 1 rope, nae gear- not a happy sight

 Neil and Tim following on

 Neil enjoying some of the steeper pulls

 Tim on the last pitch

Hans's team and Ed and Nick the photography team

 Hans and Ed (on the receiving end of a photo for a change)

 Addressing the haggis and the many facial expressions of Phil Sanderson

Haggis, wine, whisky and the pipes

"Here's tae us,

Wha's like us?

Damned few,

And they're a deid!"