Chris and Andrew took the train up to Aviemore, Scotland, near the Cairngorm Mountains to do a Winter Skills course. I joined them a few days later, but only after experiencing a lovely dusting of snow in Oxford.
After a comfortable night spent on a sleeper train, Chris and I head out for Coire an t-sneachda and onto the summit of Cairn Gorm, the most prominent peak in the area and the 6th highest in the UK. Although it was a sunny day, the 80 mph gusts slowed our progress and gave Chris the opportunity to experience a bit of snow blindness!
Here's the summit of Cairn Gorm, near the weather station.
Andrew and I spent the next couple of days doing a Winter Mountaineering course,
then took a couple days to explore some of the routes around Coire an t-sneachda (below) on our own.
We made our way up a classic route called Jacob's Ladder, though the exit at the top was more difficult than anticipated and involved a couple falls onto soft snow before making it out. Here's Andrew on the lower half of Jacob's Ladder with me belaying. As you can see, this day was foggy, making it rather difficult to find any of the routes in the Coire.
The next day, we headed up Aladdin's Gulley. The climbing was great fun, but after a couple rough sections and some difficult route finding, we ran out of time and were forced to retreat back down the gulley.
Chris and Andrew took the train up to Aviemore, Scotland, near the Cairngorm Mountains to do a Winter Skills course. I joined them a few days later, but only after experiencing a lovely dusting of snow in Oxford.
After a comfortable night spent on a sleeper train, Chris and I head out for Coire an t-sneachda and onto the summit of Cairn Gorm, the most prominent peak in the area and the 6th highest in the UK. Although it was a sunny day, the 80 mph gusts slowed our progress and gave Chris the opportunity to experience a bit of snow blindness!
Here's the summit of Cairn Gorm, near the weather station.
Andrew and I spent the next couple of days doing a Winter Mountaineering course,
then took a couple days to explore some of the routes around Coire an t-sneachda (below) on our own.
We made our way up a classic route called Jacob's Ladder, though the exit at the top was more difficult than anticipated and involved a couple falls onto soft snow before making it out. Here's Andrew on the lower half of Jacob's Ladder with me belaying. As you can see, this day was foggy, making it rather difficult to find any of the routes in the Coire.
The next day, we headed up Aladdin's Gulley. The climbing was great fun, but after a couple rough sections and some difficult route finding, we ran out of time and were forced to retreat back down the gulley.
That sounds fun! (Except for the snow blindness and ice and cold, ha ha.) And your pic of snowy Oxford is really gorgeous - if there's ever an Oxford photo contest, I totally think you should enter it. It's breathtaking. :)
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