Slochd Mhor Buddy Weekend
4th - 6th February 2011
By Kitti
Various parties arrived at different times at the Lodge, but around 10 pm most of us were there. Brent explained what the weekend was about and after a short introduction from everybody an interesting discussion started Dave explained a lot about avalanches and rescue techniques, and everybody joined in with gruesome stories on how (not) to die in the mountains. Luckily the conversation ended on a happier note, and after some soothing G&T’s everybody went to bed.
The predicted high winds arrived in the morning, so there was no reason to hurry off at first light. Much porridge was consumed in preparation for the day. At 9am we headed outside to check the gear, and to make sure everybody had a compass, map, boot crampons, ice axes, skis, skins, ski crampons, gloves hats etc.(and of course the avalanche rescue equipment, shovels, beepers and probes. The big group was split into three smaller groups and we all headed up the mountain.
Our group consisted of Brent, Helen, Clare (S), Rob, Steve and me. We parked at the top car park at Cairngorm and skinned up next to the poma. The snow was hard, but not too bad. We could see there was a fair amount of wind that day, and the higher we got the windier it was.
There was no point in going into the northern coires as the wind was too strong, and the conditions very icy. We decided to stay in Coire Cas, as it was a little more sheltered. Nice snow was nowhere to be found, and instead we found sheets of water ice, and very hard icy snow. We had lunch in a relatively sheltered spot, Clare showed us how to dig a nice lunch spot, and after a wee bite, we dug a snow pit and had a look at how the different snow layers were build up. Interesting to see how easily one layer could slide off another. We also practiced an avalanche search, and dug up Clare’s lunch box quite quickly.
After the lunch we decided to go further up towards the ridge and Ptarmigan station, but the higher we went, the more ice we encountered, and it was clear that further progress was going to be challenging. Brent (malfunctioning harchesein) and Helen (sensible) headed down, but the rest of us were stubborn and carried on. Clare changed to her boot crampons while Rob and Steve showed great skill and skied down the boiler plate when upward progress was abandoned. I chickened out and carried on towards the ski lift, and from there skied down the piste, which had reasonable snow. We all met up on the piste and had a delightful ski down the hill were we met up with Brent and Helen.
All back to the Lodge were we met up with all the other groups. As I gathered everybody had a brilliant day, although most of us felt slightly windswept. Rugby was watched (will not go into that, but I got an idea that Scotland played very well, pity they still lost) dinner was prepared (thanks to the strong young men who did the stirring), and there was lots of talking about the day we had.
Dinner was served at 7.31 and the starter was onion soup with croutons and parmesan cheese, made by Helen. Very lovely! The main meal was salmon steaks with mushroom, wine and cream sauce covered in breadcrumbs with cheese and lemon (the parsley we had to imagine, that’s what you get when you let men do the shopping) with potatoes, and broccoli. It all was delicious, many thanks to Clare (C). The pudding, courtesy of Clare S, (cake with soft cheese layers and peaches) tasted heavenly. Luckily we lost a lot of calories during the day, because we definitely gained a few during this dinner. Wine was served, and discussions went round. It was a good evening. Bed time again and I guess most of us slept much better that second night. I know I did.
Sunday Morning breakfast consisted of sausages, eggs, potatoes, broccoli and more porridge and the left over pudding went into many lunch boxes. Groups were formed. Some of us did not fancy going onto the icy slopes again, so Martin and Susan decided to go bird watching further North. The club veterans where going for a lower level, less windy walk, while six of us were going to try and get higher onto the snow on skis.
The group of Helen, Kitty, Grant, Robert and Steven had a great day which began with a pricey hour shopping as Dave bought touring boots, crampons and a shiney new ice axe.
The plan was to go to Lurchers via the Fiacaill flank, but there wasn’t enough time, so, we skinned all the way up the Fiacaill and then up to the summit of Cairngorm. The old rain-ice on top of the hardpack snow made skinning tricky.
Dave with his new boots wondering whether skates might have been in order ...
We had our sandwiches on the top of the Fiacaill with no wind and great views of the Northern Corries where there were at least 10 groups of walkers and climbers busying about. There were superb views over the plateau which was shining with ice to a shrouded Ben MacDhui.
Grant, Helen B, Rob, Dave, Kitti, Steve on Cairngorm summit ...
I hear that the walking group had great views of the Cairngorms from their hill and managed to finish their walk exactly at a coffee shop. I am told this kind of expert route choice and precise navigation take years of experience to acquire.
I hope to have another weekend with the club soon, as I had a great time. Many thanks to all the “Buddies” who showed us new people how to have a fantastic skiing weekend
Kitti