Day 1 Movement on steep ground: step-kicking, step-cutting, cramponing styles (French technique, front-pointing, hybrid), self-belay and ice axe arrests then digging emergency shelters using ice axe only...
Day 2 Security on steep ground: more step cutting, waist belay, bucket seat, buried axe, stomper, bollards, abseil, lowering, confidence roping...
More snow than anyone remembers for 40 years.
Day 3 Expedition (Cairngorm mini-break). Onto the plateau via Fiacaill Ridge.
The Vent was well corniced.
Lochan Buidhe, March Burn and other major features like paths, streams and rock outcrops are there somewhere. You are expected to navigate to small features that are buried under 2m of snow in a smoothed out landscape.
Home sweet home, well it will be after 4 hours of digging.
Warmer, roomier and more sociable than a tent in this environment.
What's packed in must be packed out, courtesy of the Cairngorm Poo Project:
Day 4 Navigation.
Weather closing in on the other group as well on their last leg back to the snow hole.
Our lintel was a good feature but apparently the block wall acts like a snow fence which can fill the door quickly in a cross wind.
Day 5 The assessors decided that the alpine conditions we'd had were too nice so they took advantage of the incoming poor weather to make the night-nav more challenging. A few hours sleep then another hour or so of melting snow in the jet boil before five and a half hours in deep snow in the dark, in the clag.
Taking advantage of the facilities at The Lodge whilst waiting for the Assessors' feedback.
Thanks George Mc and Dave for an excellent week - really enjoyed it and picked up more tips for future Scottish winters. Thanks also to Mark, Eliot and Darryl, my snow hole brethren for fun times.
