Berghaus Gear Testing At GL

On Wednesday I met up with the Berghaus team at GL who were here to test the new winter season gear. They were split into 4 teams, led by Nathan, Kevin, Sandy and myself. I was with Phil, Joss, Jo, Kirsty, Jordan, Ben and Danny. They had come from Berghaus Outlets all over the UK, as well as Head Office. We got ourselves kitted up from head to foot in Berghaus finery and went out to hit the snow.

Phil walking through the white

The cloud level was below 600m and so we instantly had poor visibility when we left the Cairngorm Mountain top car park. This was the first day walking in Scotland for some, and the first adventure walking in snow for others.

Nathans team

The going was hard. I found myself trail breaking all day. The snow had a thin crust on the surface, and when my foot broke through, I would often sink up to my knee. We headed for the twin burns at the back of Coire an Lochain. The steep slope up from here was exciting for the group, especially when Ben had a mini slip and his self belay held him.

Where's my hat?

Sarah, Angela and Phil

Joss leading the way to the 1083m spot height.

We got as far as the 1083m spot height, west of Cairn Lochan, and then the group practiced their nav back to the bus. There was a huge amount of rime on Wednesday, from the northerly winds. The rime was over 30-40cm long in places. I was thinking about Thursday - the last of their Winter Skills days, and where to take them. I had already decided to make life easier for them (and myself), by partly using tracks that had already been made by people on the Wednesday.

Jordan checking out the size of the rime ice