Its been a while since I sacrificed climbing for winter walking but the last couple of days Duncan and I have been going over a few things in preparation for his assessment this week. We both cursed the conditions being so good as we wandered up the hill map and compass in hand instead of technical tools or ski’s – like most folk today. For once we wanted the ‘ming’ to come in to make navigating more challenging and thankfully at about 900m visibility went down to around 20m.

Loads of people out touring in the lovely weather today, we didnt see much of t’sneachda or the Loch Avon basin therefore unable to comment on climbing conditions. The amount of snow about is unbelievable, once/if the winds subside for more than one day there will be plenty of excellent skiing to be had!

I am sure you will pass without fault Duncan, whatever you do don’t drop your map!

Duncan doing his thing

So much snow!

Cairngorm Summit

Serious fracture lines at the top of Corrie Cas

I have never seen so many people skiing at Cairngorm before. Both Cas and Ciste carparks full.