Winter 2022
A circuit of the northern corries of the Cairngorms – 2nd April 2022
Ski-touring adventures above Zinal – 5th March 2022
Aladdin’s Couloir, a classic gully adventure in the Cairngorms – 11th January 2022
Looking at the back wall of the cliffs of Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms. Aladdin’s Gully takes the district line to the left of Mel. The gully has a short ice section just at the narrows, which you can see, before the climb heads up and right behind the pinnacles to the plateau at the top.
Different views of the lower section of the gully. Here we are climbing the route by a series of pitches, using the rock and sometimes the snow to make belay anchors.
Nearly at the top…! The gully takes us to a surprising flatter section amongst the pinnacles, with views looking back down where we’ve come from…
… and the last section up to the top…
… and onto the Cairngorm plateau. Quite a different landscape, but great to look back at the cliffs and some of the impressive terrain and the ridge-line of the Fiacaill Ridge.
Ski tour on Fionn Bhein, above Achnasheen – 7th January 2022
A great fairly straight-forward ski-tour on an accessible Munro in the central Highlands.
Great views looking west towards Torridon, with Liatach and Beinn Eighe standing out…
… and to the north-west you could see Slioch catching the sun, Loch Fada and the rest of the Letterewe range.
And not a bad cover of snow for the ski down, so it was worth doing two laps of the top slope!
A snowy day on the Fiacaill Ridge – 5th January 2022
A good first winter mountaineering route after learning some good cramponing skills. The route is like a great snowy scramble, with some interesting steps and a bit of exposure.
Still a whiteout at the top of the ridge!
Winter solstice – crevasse rescue practice 21st December 2021
Looking through the Lairig Ghru, in the Cairngorms, to wards Cairn Toul.
We had had a couple of days of practicing making different snow belays and now the team were able to put them into practice, working through the process of improvised crevasse rescue.
The Lairig Ghru pass looking north…
… and looking further north and west to the rest of the Highlands.
A ski descent into the Loch Avon basin – 12th December 2021
After a few more days of snow fall, the cover made it OK to ski all the way down to Loch Avon, over the back of Cairngorm, taking you right into the centre of these mountains.
Looking up Loch Avon to the cliffs fo the Shelterstone, preparing for the ski tour back up…
…and a further good ski down the Ciste Gully, taking care with a few holes in the snow cover near the bottom..!
Finding the ski legs, first ski tour of the season on Cairngorm – 3rd December 2021
This well-known summit holds the snow well on many sides so is great for combining ski-touring with skiing, and dropping into different views and environments.
