Saturday 8 December 2012

WINTER NAVIGATION

Heading into a very white Coire an Lochan
Russ map reading
Two climbers above the great slab in Coire an Lochan
It was a milder day today which will be great for the snow pack for some consolidation. I am joined by Russ for the next couple of days who is wanting some winter navigation training. Russ is aiming toward his Gold NNA and a couple of Cairngorm winter navigation days will see he gets to the required standard I'm sure. It was hard going in the deep snow and strong winds today but it did stay dry all day. We headed into Coire an Lochan for a wee bit of shelter from the westerlies. There was a couple of climbers heading into something soft and white lower in the corrie. A few climbers heading into Sneachda too by the looks of things and as early as mid morning there were a few walkers backing down from the plateau, wind/navigation related? In these conditions Naismith's Rule may not be so accurate and at times today we were down to only half km per hour trail breaking. Coire Cas carpark was looking pretty full when we got back, plenty of skiing on Cairngorm this weekend. Another wild day tomorrow and then with a freeze the snow pack should be staring to get good.

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