Cairngorms

After a good days skiing on Sunday in some lovely sunshine, my winter courses in the Cairngorms have started with more typical weather - pretty up and down, but without too much drama. Monday was wet and windy, but yesterday was much improved and there were quite a few teams out enjoying the early season conditions, including some old friends - Hi Shona & Don. We concentrated on some of the basics, especially looking at the potential for windslab avalanches, as the strong wind is providing us with plenty of examples ! More challenging weather  forecast for tomorrow - at least it provides 'hands on' experience in coping with poor conditions - its not always a blue skied winter wonderland - that would be too easy, wouldn't it ????

Winter season start

Pressed the last of the cider apples this week and the wood shed is full - so roll on winter ! The reports of snow on the Scottish mountains and the forecast for more is a relief as courses start in the Cairngorms the week leading up to Christmas, however, Snowdonia isn't showing a lot of promise and I have had to cancel next weeks course after the thaw and rain of Thursday's storm - a bit disappointing as this time last year the ice was excellent - I even ran an ice climbing course in the Brecon Beacons! We're heading to the Cairngorms on Saturday so packing the ski's, ice axes, crampons etc this week and getting more excited - especially looking at all the webcams.