Last week's course- short video- wild weather

Cairngorm Mountaineering from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Last day at Glenmore Lodge for me this winter

After a good few days with Andy, Andy and Simon this week the weather was looking particularly unpleasant today. Most of the Lodge groups toughed it out for half a day but we'd put our 'grimmest' time in this week so we stayed down at the Centre to make use of the indoor and outdoor facilities there (and it was grim enough on the outside towers today!). The guys have done well absorbing and refreshing some skills in often dire weather this week and today was a chance to consolidate some of that in a more controlled environment and try a few new things.
It was my last week at Glenmore Lodge for this winter- home to a short break (climbing- fingers crossed) before a busy spell of work on the west now. I do enjoy working at the National Centre. The chance to observe and exchange ideas with colleagues and get inspired by the sense of humour, professionalism and resourcefulness that they bring to work whatever the weather! Plenty more work for them in the future including some time at the CIC Hut coming up.
a last few images of the guys today- cheers for the craic!

 Kirk laying out his day

 Trying something new

 Simon working up a sweat

 Accuracy and precision

Grim even down here!

Moist snow and big avalanches

The mild weather had triggered wet snow avalanches round most of the N facing aspects in Coire and t Sneachda today. Those near the Mess of Pottage looked to have been set off by cornice collapse from the sight of the huge blocks in the base of the Coire- still plenty more to come down though!

We headed in to the Coire to let the guys put some rope work into practise on some nice steady ground with a seemingly endless supply of thread belays and runners. It began to snow lightly in the afternoon as we topped out and had a play on some of the small steeper buttresses on the crest of the Fiacaill of Sneachda. 

 Glide cracks getting big enough to drive cars into

 Big slides from Aladdin's Couloir round to Windy Col

 Andy kitting up

 Lots of debris

 'Van sized' chunks of cornice

 Ptarmigan ignoring climbers

 Simon on the sharp end

 Direct belay over a wee step

 Andy out front

 Another belay

 The team nearing the top

 Slogging through wet porridge

Last belay

More snowy Cairngorm fun

With another windy day (and a potentially mild one) forecast we wanted to cover some skills today so we headed to the north ridge of Cairngorm to play in the snow (via some emergency shelters dug in the stream bed on route). Its a potentially serious place in a thaw with large cornices at the moment and its quite a terrain trap. Along with Kirk and his team we spent a little time investigating various slopes on ropes before identifying one end of the meltwater channel as being quite stable and the other end as a lot less so.
Then it was steep snow craft, bucket seats, buried axes, deadmen and snow bollard abseils. We digressed into rope work for investigating snow at the lip of a slope and triggered a small cornice. Then everyone wanted a go!

 Locals?

 My wee hole

 Andy's hole

 Kirk's team on the N Ridge

 Simon topping out

 Heading back down

 The meltwater channel

 'So that's what it feels like to fall through a cornice!'

 'My turn'

 Getting steeper

 No bother!

 Back down

Human torpedo

A wee bitty breezey on Fiacaill ridge

The Met and MWIS have been arguing a lot recently. Woke up to snow at the Lodge this morning which wasn't expected and there was a lot of discussion about plan Bs, Cs and Zs at breakfast amongst the live in Instructors. During the morning meeting the cloud rolled back and we could see snow being piled in from the SW over the Cairngorms. So it was suck it and see on my original Plan A with the guys today. We headed into Coire an t Sneachda rather than up the end of the Fiacaill as we were already being pummelled by winds and know it would be worse on the crest of the ridge. Just as the ridge changes aspect on the way into the Coire there is a rocky line to its crest and we made our way up that on good scoured neve. The Ridge itself was a touch snowy and blowy and we didn't hang around but took the Grade I route before scuttling down to the top of the Goat Track where, bizarrely there was almost no wind. However by the time we reached 'Windy' Col between the top of the Mess of Pottage and .1141 we were being knocked down and almost crawling. Then Andy's crampon broke and bits of it actually blew away. This made getting down from .1141  little more interesting than usual but we still had time to admire the sastrugi forming on the Cas Ridge and at its base dig a couple of snow profiles to see what was happening in the fresh windslabby snowpack (columns failed on isolation in 2 layers 40 and 60cm down). A pleasant sunny walk back to the car park ended a fine day out.
Now what will we do tomorrow….?

 Footprints filling in in minutes

Plume blowing from Fiacaill of Coire an t Sneachda

Easy, sheltered, scoured

Andy 

Simon on steeper ground

Much windier on top!

On Fiacaill ridge

The first wee gully

Rope on

Topping out

Selfie at the top

Cornices above Coire an t Sneachda, Fiacaill Ridge behind

Picking up after another knockdown blast

100ft plumes of snow blowing up the Coire face

The Cas Ridge

Sastrugi

Flowing snow

Cake time!

A nice day for a walk on the plateau

This week I'm working a tailor made walking/mountaineering course at Glenmore Lodge. With great weather today I took Andy, Andy and Simon up onto the plateau to see the sights whilst the weather allows. Jules from the Nightwatch came along for the ride. Plenty of fresh snow still around but the sun shone and the wind failed to blow… lovely change!