It’s pretty much a certainty that we will encounter winter conditions and snow pack in the High Sierra’s (if not other areas) particularly as we are starting the trail mid March and therefore entering the mountains about a month earlier than is generally considered the best time to be doing so. By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail (Benjamin Franklin!) so we headed to the Cairngorms in Scotland for a Winter Skills Training with Cairngorm Adventure Guides.
The weather forecast on Day 1 was clear in the morning, showers/snow later in the day and damn windy! We met our guide, Scott, and the rest of our 6 person group, and Scott talked to us about some of the essential skills for outdoor winter adventures. There was a lot to cover! Over the whole weekend we learnt about identifying and reducing avalanche risk, reading avalanche forecasts, how snow pack is analysed to produce the forecasts (and how you can use that yourself to assess risk), numerous ice axe skills, crampons skills, navigation skills and planning a day out taking all this, and the weather forecast, into account.
Having covered some of this indoors we headed up to the Aviemore Ski area with a planned route in mind and practiced some simple navigation skills to get going. We soon found that we were at freezing level at around 600m, just as forecast, and so our first time putting crampons on in anger to safely walk up the frozen path.
The higher we got, the windier it got and we soon learnt that it took gusts of about 75mph to knock us over! Throughout the day we stopped frequently to learn skills and put them into practice, everything from how to hold an ice axe, techniques for traversing or climbing slopes in crampons, and keeping a continual eye on the weather – was it doing what we expected, has anything changed that would change our plans? Importantly, we not only learnt how to avoid slipping but also how to ‘self-arrest’ – using your ice axe to stop yourself sliding down a slope should you need to. Emphasis on techniques to prevent this happening in the first place!
Despite only walking a few km, it had been a tiring day and we spent the evening relaxing back at the hostel, caught the end of the England Six Nations game (beating Scotland). Fish and chip dinner, I went for the tourist classic – battered black pudding followed by battered mars bar. ? After some homework – checking the weather and avalanche forecasts for Sunday, we got a good nights sleep ready for another day of training.
The weather forecast wasn’t good on Sunday, rain, cold and even more wind! We met at a cafe near the ski centre and went over some map knowledge and some exercises before heading up to the ski centre. We stayed lower and explored the ski slopes (which were not open for skiing!), using some fencing where snow had collected to practice more techniques without crampons and some more techniques with the ice axe for cutting steps into a slope. The weather had not been quite as bad as forecast to begin with, but the rain soon fell and the wind picked up, particularly whilst walking along a ridge. It was hard work to walk against, we were wet and cold so we practices some navigation whilst heading back down to the ski centre for a hot drink and debrief.
Another evening reading and relaxing at the hostel, and couldn’t believe my ears when I overheard someone else in the lounge say they were hiking the PCT this year! What are the chances? Lovely to meet a fellow PCT 2020 hiker (Cam Hikes) and an enjoyable evening chatting everything PCT with her! ?
We woke Monday morning to an inch or so of snow in Aviemore and it was still coming down as we enjoyed a cracking breakfast at the Mountain Cafe. We had time for a fun Wintery walk in the snow, with the sun poking through before heading back to Inverness for our flight home.
We were both really happy that we had done the winter training and learnt so much. We definitely feel better prepared to make good decisions during planning and whilst out on the hills, trails and mountains.
?Top 5 takeaway’s from the weekend
? Katie
- Wind: 60mph is pretty hard work, 75mph literally blows me away. ?
- My walking pace for a flat 100m is 72 steps.
- 4 D’s for Planning & Navigating – .Direction, Description, Distance, Duration.
- Have everything you need throughout the day, to hand and tied on. Pack everything else in the correct order and in familiar packaging.
- Have an ‘Ouch Pouch’ ready to go at the top of your bag, full first aid the bottom.
?♂️ Tom
- Avalanche Risk Assessment – Angle, Aspect, Altitude, 100m run off, 30 degrees.
- Basics of ice axe arrest – how to try and stop sliding if shit hits the fan.
- More importantly, techniques for preventing situations that require an ice axe arrest in the first place!
- Don’t just use tech maps (phone, watch) when you aren’t sure where you are, verify where you think you are with them regularly, before you aren’t sure!
- I’ve put myself in some silly situations not knowing how to plan a winter outing bearing in mind weather and avalanche risk! Been lucky so far, make better choices in future!
Bonus: I need new gloves. ?
#PCT2020 #failingtoprepareispreparingtofail #ScottishWinter #Winter