FINAL DAY WITH COTSWOLD OUTDOORS

The team on the final pull to Windy Col

Snow shelter digging

Still winter in Sneachda

A variety of snow shelters and pits today

Alladins Couloir

Its hotel time

Jacobs Ladder with a very droopy cornice!

A patchy Cairngorm plateau

Coire an t-sneachda

Our second day out with the Cotswold Outdoor Store folk on their weekend skills course. Today the guys were keen on building some snow shelters. You probably wouldn't want to stay overnight in these with the very mild conditions. This morning it was 7 deg C on the summit of Cairn Gorm. Despite the less than ideal snow conditions, there is still lots and lots of it and it's all in The Highlands :) . We dug a variety of different snow accommodations in the moraine area in Coire an t-sneachda. After lunch in these, we had a wee journey up to Windy Col and onto Cairn Gorm summit. There is excellent snow cover from Coire floor to Windy Col. Just a nice freeze would be great! Big cornices all the way along the gullies. We saw two folk in Alladins Couloir, not for me, the Cornice above this looked big from where we were observing! Despite a forecast of severe winds up high, we only had a wee Cairngorm breeze on the plateau and the Munro of Cairn Gorm. Another great day out and good fun with the guys. Thanks to Pete Long for helping me out this weekend, the guys got loads of vital skills and lots and lots of valuable experience from us.