Home to the snow

Reading the load cell

Digging anchors on the west wall

Tested to destruction

After an epic journey of planes, coaches and vans we made it to a friends' house at Boat of Garten early this morning so that I could attend some staff training at Glenmore Lodge today.

The bulk of today's time was spent testing a variety of snow anchors including burying some of the modern leashless climbing tools with their radical shapes in the same way as a more conventional mountaineering axe. We had a load cell out today to make the testing a little more quantifiable. It was quite a team with almost 20 MICs and Guides in Coire na Ciste today. Although the east hasn't had the copious amounts of snow that the west has strong winds have led to scouring and deposition on lee slopes.