First day with three clients. They had been out scrambling with me previously and wanted to learn more winter skills.
Though I had sent out a list of requirements (with pictures...) they turned up with a mis match of kit. All had good B3 boots and clothing but two had very technical crampons and 1 had an overly technical axe. Though more steep ice climbing crampons, they fitted the boot well so I was happy to let him carry on. I swapped his ice axe out for one of my more mountaineering axes.
We walked into Coire an t-Sneachda and had some good axe exersices and drills in the moraines off to the left before heading over to the flat iron slabs in the south west corner. These were frozen water ice and gave us a good location to perfect our crampon technique. The wind was quite high and had blown the snow hard so it was no (IMHO) suitable for any form of ice axe arrest practice so we spent more time on movement and crampon technique.
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.
