Winter Skills In Coire an t-Sneachda

A climbing team of 3 backing off from Aladdin's Buttress

Today I was again with the group of 6 from Edinburgh Uni Hill Walking Club (Alex, Briony, Tonje, Stuart, Douglas, Justin), working on the MC of S Winter Skills weekend at Glenmore Lodge. We headed into Coire an t-Sneachda in very blowy conditions - and about the coldest windchill I've had this winter. We met about 5 climbing teams heading out of the Coire. One team retreated from the snow slopes below the Mess of Pottage - wise! We saw another team trying to climb on Aladdin's Buttress, but eventually retreated. We heard climbing calls from somewhere on Aladdin's Buttress too, perhaps Aladdin's Mirror Direct - we saw climbers at that belay.

Aladdin's Buttress, Fluted Buttress and the Goat Track - the snow slopes all loaded with slab

We made our way to the flat ice (which was in excellent frozen exposed condition) for some crampon training. After a bit of coaching and new confidence the team started the journey up the neve towards the Fiacaill Ridge notch.

Douglas with Fiacaill Buttress behind

On the Fiacaill Buttress climbers were climbing the Couloir, and Invernookie - several teams on each.

Hard neve below Fiacaill Buttress

Climbers on Fiacaill Couloir and Invernookie

Dave Haygarth with his 2 climbing clients at the notch on the Fiacaill Ridge

Dave about to head off down into Coire an t-Sneachda

A final bumslide towards the end of the day

At the end of a great journey, we looked at ice axe arresting to complete all the objectives that the team wanted to look at this weekend. Great company - thanks for a great weekend.

The lower section of Fiacaill Ridge in the background

We found lots of patches of unconsolidated slab on our journey today, with unstable layers and easy shearing. There was a small patch of slab about 10cm thick that we couldn't avoid on the neve up towards the notch on the ridge, but a determined front point easily penetrated through to the neve below. Even the lower section of the ridge had patches of unconsolidated slab, which we were able to work around.