Another skills day on the cairngorm plateau, this time focusing on building snow holes. After the cold, strong winds of yesterday we were happy for calmer, sunnier conditions.
We approached coire domhain via t-sneachda ridge (1) of which we fully traversed. Most underfoot conditions were good, with hard packed icy crust, calling for the use of crampons and axe early into the day. From the ridge we noticed two walkers negotiating steep, very loaded ground in coire an lochain. We both agreed that this aspect today, although a moderate risk had been forecast, was not suitable to be travelled. Subsequently we heard of an avalanche within the coire a little later in the day and were relieved to hear that the two walkers we had seen were OK. From the summit of t-sneachda we crunched our way across to coire domhain where we noticed a considerable amount of snow to dig into! After having a quick nosey at other snow holes we dug our own, of which we completed in 2.5hours to a suitable level.
From here we navigated north towards stob coire an t-sneachda and descended one of its western flanks beyond the crags where we found a suitably hand-picked snowpack to descent safely. From here we followed the track back to the car. 7 hours total.
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.
