
A much poorer-quality weather day, experiencing whiteout throughout whole of day when within the cloud level. From ski car park navigated along coire an Lochain track experiencing whiteout conditions as early on as 650m. Micro navigation practiced on way to Fiacaill an coire an Lochain. Navigated in total whiteout from spot height of 1083m to south high top of Cairn Lochain and then onto summit (1215m) taking great care when approaching near corniced edges on north-facing cliffs. Still in total whiteout navigated to start of t-Sneachda ridge and down to Coire Domhain and onto Stob Coire an T-Sneachda (1176m). Navigated to 1141 and descended to car park via ski runs. Heavy snow and strong winds experienced throughout the day, especially when near northern edges of crags where wind sped up and over cliff edge. Hard packed icy crust found on summits with areas which had been scoured down to create a very thin snowpack. Throughout majority of the day this depth snowpack was seen, with much of the area stripped. Windslab build ups were seen in areas such as coire domhain.
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.