Saturday 16 March 2013

HEAVY SNOW DAY

Good day for navigation
Easy shears in the snowpack
This pit at 1120m had a very easy shear
Not many views today!
It started snowing late morning in The Cairngorms and continued all day, snow down to around 450m. Alan & Jeff are out with me this weekend on a two day winter course. The guys wanted to brush up on their winter navigation and we also spent much of the day on avalanche awareness. Excellent conditions for this with the days SAIS avalanche forecast very multi coloured with many aspects in a Cat. 3 state. This was confirmed as we dug several snow pits on many different aspects in Coire an Lochan. We found an very easy shear at about 30cm in the Twin Burns area on a NE aspect. With  several days of snow showers, sub zero temps and a constantly changing wind direction this week it all mounts up to a complex snow pack. The vis was very poor most of the day. By he time we got back to the Cas car park it looked like mid winter had returned to the mountains. There is a lot of winter days left still! Take care out there.
PS If anyone finds a Black Diamond trekking pole at the Cas carpark, near the ranger station can you please give Gary a call on 077 2000 1326, a pint in reward! :)

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