For the past two days, I have been in the Cairngorms with the Falkirk High Tops Team. Some of the team were completing a ski touring introductory course while the rest of the team were completing a winter skills weekend.
Yesterday, the skiers and I ascended Lurchers Gully. On the way up we looked at the use of avalanche transceivers, the use of ski touring equipment and skills such as skinning. The descent was on good snow and we managed to ski all the way to the burn exiting Coire an t-Sneachda leaving only a fifteen minute walk back to the bus.
Today, the weather conditions were particularly difficult resulting in the ski centre being closed. We still had a good day out though looking at more important topics. We climbed high into Coire Cas looking at skills such as; searching with transceivers, shovel and probe, kick turning on steep ground in ascent and kick turning in descent. Following a lunch stop with Craig and his team in their newly built shelter, we made the ascent to the Ptarmigan restaurant.
The precipitation during the ascent was rain below 800 metres and snow above. This new snow gave us a great run down the M1 piste and due to the resort being closed we had it all to ourselves. The snow continued all the way to the car park meaning no walking was required.
We left the ski car park at 2pm. The rain had turned to snow at this level by this time.
