It's snowing! In Edinburgh. Pretty.

(Apologies for length.)

So, snow. Wind the clock back a few weeks, and I was sitting here wondering if there'd be a decent amount of snow for my Winter Mountaineering course, since there wasn't much around, even in the Cairngorms. Turns out that wasn't a problem. It went cold the week before I went, followed by a windy weekend with big snow dumps, road closures on the Sunday, and so on.

So, I arrived in Aviemore on Friday night, and checked into my accommodation, the Carn Mhor, a B&B which is to be recommended. Saturday, a huge fried breakfast (which fortunately was a constant throughout the week, keep the energy up), then picked up and off to the hill. The Car park for the Cairngorm ski area provides handy access for the hill, so we were off there, got our stuff together (ice axe and crampons, which I purchased), and off up the hill. The rest of the day was mainly taken up by ice axe arrests, sliding down a slope in various positions and then stopping yourself with your axe. And finding out how difficult it is to put crampons on with numb fingers; the weather was quite cold and windy, even off the top.

Sunday the road up to the high car park was closed, although it was perfectly possible to drive up it seems they shut it for the saftey of all the midterm-weekenders. So after a bit of a walk we went off to dig snow shelters. Which was interesting. After this, we went up the hill a bit more, partly for some step-cutting practice. Also went over a small ridge and found a very interesting snow formation (see this page, which has a photo of this as well as our group on various days). And found out how tricky it is to climb up through a cornice of unconsolidated snow—it just sort of falls away, an inch upwards and two foot forwards. And here's another tip—sometimes it's easier and quicker to crawl on deep fresh snow than to wade through it.

Okay, Saturday and Sunday were with some other people who were just there for the weekend. Although a few people did come out to dinner during the week as well, which was nice. Never had to eat alone. Anyway, Monday was basically ropework practice, practically in Ron's (the instructor's) back garden, including digging snow belays.

On Tuesday we were off to the hill again, this time to Coire an t'Sneachda. This was a stunning day, the weather was absolutely beautiful. The walk in was pleasent with a relatively small amount of clothing in the blazing sunshine, could have been in the alps. And the views, with ice and snow-plastered rocks, and distant hills...

Some valuable practice holding falls, good for confidence, and then up a short gully, with Ron taking us up on the rope. Really enjoyed this, particularly the harder rocky step. Then unroped and went down an easier slope, to walk off with the last light of the day.

Wednesday was "put it all together day". Unfortunately one person didn't feel up to the climb, but two of us went up Jacob's Ladder, an easy grade I gully. Was good fun; we were basically doing this on our own steam, belaying each other up, with the instructor climbing up alongside telling us how to set up anchors and so on. Slightly more realistic weather, the wind really does funnel into a gully, suddenly blasting your face with icy pellets and then dying down to nothing.

All in all a great week, and I'm sure I've forgotton lots. Glad I did it. On thursday I went off on my own to do Ben MacDui rather than getting an earlier train home, which given the conditions was a test of navigational skills (I passed). Completely alien landscape when all you can see, up or down, is white. Also tricky to walk in a straight line.

Anyway, good week, learnt lots, and will be out in the snow as soon as I can. Have a look at the winternet page for some pictures, my camera gave up the ghost in the cold.