Karl Wait - 161731

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Winter Walking Record

Details

Date : 10/03/2018

Duration : 8+ hours

Style : Equals

Type : Quality Mountain Day (QMD)

Weather : Heavy snow - poor visibility

Wind : Strong wind

Camping Type : N/A

Nights Camping : 0

Mountains : Ben Macdui Cairn Lochan Stob Coire An T-Sneachda

Flagged :

Description

15 HOUR DAY- 5* DAY
The mission for the day was a long day walking to Ben Mac dui and then a possible snow hole night on the way back, but a "B Plan" was built in , due to the length of the walk and conditions .
We set off for MacDui at 6am and headed up via Miadan Creag an LethChoin and after around 5 hours we reached the summit, we stopped briefly to refuel and then headed towards Cairn Lochan and along the plateau until spot height 1141 and descended Fiacalli a Choire Chais and dropped off the ridge to the right into the coire and looked for an area to dig a snow hole.
By this time the winds were around 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph and there was lots of snow getting blown around.
The SAIS forecast had mentioned that north- north west facing slopes would have considerable avalanche risks so we were happy with our choice, until we started to dig......
after getting through around 2 metres of snow, the older pack was becoming hard and at times we were chipping away at ice, but we persevered. after five hours we were at around 3/4 finished , wet with sweat, going from hot to cold, the door way was getting filled up again with spindrift, so the decision was made to head back to the car.
the walk back down the coire was.... FUN.! windy, blizzard, and dark! Compass in hand and reading the slope through our feet we made it back to the car and back to hostel, which thank god we had pre booked in the planning stage!
all in all a full winter day with everything thrown at us!

Area : The Cairngorms

The Cairngorms are ‘a little piece of the arctic in Scotland’ according to the SMC Munros Guide and the area contains many of the tallest peaks in the East Highlands. Ben Macdui (1309m), Cairn Gorm (1244m) and Braeriach (1296) are probably three of the better known and the whole area is full of steep corries and high plateaux. Access to the mountains is typically from Aviemore or Braemar.

Location

Marker
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