Excellent off-piste ski-mountaineering conditions around Glenshee and the Glas Maol area today. Summit winds were Northerly and very cold, but skiing down on the newly drifted snow on sheltered lee slopes was fantastic.
Looking down and along Caen Lochan Glen, Monega Hill
Joanna and Alister with Corie an t-snechda behind.
Joanna and Alister on one of the stances
Climbing Spiral Gully
Alan and Chester leading the way as we traversed above Monelpe Moss towards Little Pap and Creag a Ghlas-uillt, near Lochnagar.
Ski pole probing, a simple test which takes a few seconds and you can perform many tests as you travel. You simply push your ski pole into the snow, feeling for unseen layers below. If you feel a lot of resistance in the surface layers and then suddenly your pole drops through a layer that feels like mostly air, this usually means that a slab overlies a layer of faceted snow, which is an especially dangerous combination. This test only gives you a general feel for the snow pack layering.
Alan on the summit.
As we came off the hill today the mist began to rise and we had good views of the skiing on Cairngorm Mountain, as you can see the snow cover is good but its all a bit icy although the piste machine drivers are out in force tilling the runs and on piste conditions seemed pretty good. Off piste, its very icy under ski and foot and most of the time the crust holds your weight, but crampons have to be worn most of the time and it must be quite horrendous on ski!
Lots of navigation practice today, here are Joanna and Alister at the weather station on Cairngorm summit.
Approaching our climb.
Seconding the crux pitch which was led by Andy
