Gwilym's Adventure Blog

On the second day of the Wet and High Adventures Winter Skills course we headed up to Cairngorm 1245m via the Ciste to work on winter navigation skills and continue with our safe travel theme. Pretty chilly and challenging visibility at the top but we all got there in good spirits On the way down, as the weather cleared we were lucky enough to see a few of the resident Reindeer herd chilling out in the sun as well as a Mountain Hare. As always, we finished with a review in the cafe and made a plan for tomorrow.

Today was the third and final day of a Wet and High Adventures Winter Skills course and it was about allowing the clients to call the shots, Unfortunately, due to illness Andy was unable to join us today. Wayne chose to go up to Cairngorm via Fiacaill a Chorie Cas. It was cold in the biting wind and walking south was painful at times, however, once the wind was on our backs, it was much nicer.

On the second day of a 1:1 Wet and High Adventures Winter Skills course, we headed up onto the plateau for some winter navigation. Ascent via Fiacaill a Choire Chais to 1141 and up onto Cairngorm gave us some challenging conditions. Bitterly cold and biting winds meant it was a goggles day with frequent visibility issues. This was good for navigation practice. The plateau is scoured and the Cairngorm weather station frozen solid, hence no wind readings on the website .

Yesterday's weather stripped a lot of the snow back but there was still plenty for Olly and I to have a ski tour up the Fiacaill a Chorie Chais, over Cairngorm and then ski the full length down to the car using some of the pisted snow. We then headed round to a patch of snow to work on Olly's snow anchors and ropework for when he takes his WML assessment.

On the third and final day of working for Peak Mountaineering . The clients Phil and Jasmin wanted to climb Cairngorm and get some views, so that is exactly what we did. Ascent via Fiaciall a Corie Chais and descent via a coffee in the summit station) I still have spaces on my 2 Day Winter Skills/Guided Mountain this coming weekend. Disclaimer: Not all Scottish Winter Days are like this but when they are, it is awesome.

Today I took my mum up Cairngorm and met my Dad in the cafe at the top after he took the train up. The afternoon was spent looking for Red Squirrels and Reindeer (both of which we found)