Friday 13 February 2015

Another week another hole in the snow

Spent the last 2 days on expedition with the Glenmore Lodge WML Trainees. We had planned to head to some snow holes over the back of Carn Ban Mor but a last minute text informed us of some military squatters so we went to Garbh Uisge Beag instead, making use of another day of stunning weather. After a little blue sky navigation on the way in we started digging. Of course a couple of metres in we hit hard stuff so Derek and I turned left and right respectively to make our comfortable beds (my elbows may need a week or so to recover). The team soon got the idea and created holes following the softer snow.
This morning we woke to a little drifting- most of which had occurred on one snow shower pre midnight- and perfect navigation conditions!
We spent the day in the white room the group ticking off lots of legs relying on dead reckoning and feeling the ground- as we couldn't see it! I took over for the last hour and a half for a rapid descent in time to get back to the Lodge for a review and some individual debriefs.
 Walk in
 Dig in
 Derek 'Dr. Mole' Bain
 First clouds of the week
 After dark snow hole visits

 Candidates dug in
 The morning drift (note my foot at bottom of pic)
 A useful indicator of overnight wind
 Ready for the first leg- finally some proper weather!
Creating 'stable tables' for accurate nav

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