We have just got back from the Cairngorms where we did our winter skills course, oh my, what a weekend!
Not knowing what we will face when we reach the Sierras we wanted to have the skills to tackle harsh snow conditions. The UK its not known for its snow, in fact England has a melt down when we see a dust of the white stuff (not so much Scotland). There are only a few places in the UK with a high probability of snow, and that includes the Cairngorms in Scotland and it did not disappoint.
The weekend has been weighing on my mind for a few weeks, worried I may injure myself, concerned it would be too much ... daft I know! But I am so glad we did it!!
We drove up to Scotland which took us 8+ hours, we saw the landscape change as we headed north. Edging closer to Aviemore, which is where we stayed, there was a sprinkling of snow with a large deposit of snow due over night.
As we woke up on Saturday morning we were greeted with a flurry of snow, far more snow than either of us have seen for a few years so it was all very exciting.
We booked the course with a company called Pure Outdoor which we would highly recommend.
The course started on Saturday morning at 9am and began with a few classroom hours learning some of the theory; how to prepare for such conditions, reading and interpreting weather reports from previous days, and how to put on crampons. By this point quite a lot of snow had settled, which would give some interesting conditions for the afternoon. Once we had packed our kit we headed towards Cairngorm mountain. The seriousness of the conditions struck home as we approached the road up to the car park we were aiming for, as it was closed, which meant we had a distance to cover on foot.
The next few hours we didn't travel far, but we covered a lot of techniques in terms of placement of feet in the snow, how to self arrest, how to use crampons and move across varying types of ground. The weather kept changing with flurry's of high wind and snow, to moments of calm, keeping us on our toes.
By around 4pm we were finishing up for the day with a full day of navigation to look forward to on the Sunday.
Waking up to a scene of white, the conditions were forecast to be slightly better than the previous day which would lend itself well for a full day in the elements.
We set off up to the ski resort, this time the road was open with lots of people aiming for the slopes. Neither of us are skiers so can't comment on the skiing!
Heading out into the whiteness we started putting the techniques we had learnt the previous day into practise. After a couple of hours of traversing over varying terrain we stepped into more challenging conditions needing to put our crampons on and have our ice axe at the ready. Challenge in itself to get crampons on whilst keeping your gloves on!! The winds were pretty strong at higher elevation(for me anyway being quite small!), with a chill factor of below -10 C which I soon started to feel.
We stopped for something to eat in a sheltered area and by this point I was feeling the cold and the shivers set in. Thankfully our instructor provided me with an extra layer (additional to the 6 layers I had on!) which soon bought my temperature up. This in itself was a big lesson!
Not wanting to stay still for too long and a break in the weather we made a dash to summit Cairn Lochan but on our way we had our first experience of a whiteout. This is where our navigation techniques really came into play. Being in a whiteout is pretty surreal, not being able to differentiate where the ground ends and the sky begins. This gave us a great deal of respect for the mountains and the weather.
Finishing the day we headed back down the mountain leaving the harsh conditions behind ploughing through fields of softer snow which was over knee height in some places (for me anyway!).
As we got back to the van I felt a huge relief and a big confidence boost, I had proved to myself that I had the ability to tackle such conditions and with the tools and techniques we can make sensible decisions.
Although we only experienced a couple of days we have learnt so much, all good preparation for the Sierras, although I am wishing for no snow!! A girl can dream!
Course - Pure Outdoor (crampons, ice axe and helmet all provided)
B2 Boot Hire - Active Outdoor Pursuits , Newtonmore
Accomodation - High Range Lodge Hotel, Aviemore
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