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By Mark Gilbert - September 2004
Almost a year on and a sense of deja vu as we bundled into Fraoch Lodge, "Aren't they the same Geordies as last year?" Sure enough it was the same guys and they are booked on to the same course as us. Having decided last year that the Cairngorm plateau required some extra honing of the navigation skills we had returned for some tuition from Andy Bateman of Mountain Innovations.
To order, the temperature plummeted overnight and the area received a good covering of the white stuff. Things were almost going to plan, well apart from having spent most of the previous week in bed with the flu.
Day One: This was to be at low level in the area adjacent to the Ryvoan Bothy. We started off gently, practicing pacing and timing legs along a well maintained path to the bothy. I usually prefer to use 1:25000 maps in the hills, but Andy's preference is for 1:50000, arguing (correctly I think) that in winter many of the features marked on the larger scale map are obscured and that its easier to display the whole days route on the 1:50000. Slowly but surely we begin to interpret more and more of the subtle information contained on the map.
The bothy turned out to be full of smoke and alcohol so we remained in the open air for a short sandwich break. "Right, get me to this point", and so the heather bashing began, No pacing, no compass, just interpretation of the map. This pattern continued for the rest of the afternoon, with occasional blizzard conditions to add that extra bit of spice.
Dinner was up to the usual excellent standard that we'd began to expect from Rebecca, the other half of MI. Homework too! Planning the next day trip, breaking it down into manageable chunks, looking for feature, to guide us on the way.
Sunday arrived and we headed to the ski car park. We were greeted by a flock of snow bunting, -5C temperature and plenty of snow. The target for the day was to navigate to Ben McDui, returning across the Cairngorm plateau. Once again Andy stretched our interpretation skills, a Ptarmigan was flushed and soon we were heading into the cloud. Slowly but surely we worked our way to our main objective for the day, using increasingly subtle changes in slope aspect and fall to cross-check our route finding. With the snow becoming deeper the less fit amongst us (me) were beginning to flag, Platypus hoses frozen solid and the bladders full of slush were not helping. The promised break in the weather did not materialise and there we were, on top of the Cairngorm in close to white out conditions. By this stage the previous weeks cold was taking its toil and Andy supplied me with some vile glucose syrup to keep me going. The conditions were starting to slow more people down, particular one of the Geordies called Shaun. We stopped to examine a snow bridge across a stream and pushed on following a bearing and noting the changes in slope aspect. As we descended into Coire Domhain Shaun was starting to look in a bad way, he stumbled and the next thing I know is that his fallen in front of me. Things were looking a bit serious. Andy B and Ant quickly carried Shaun into the Coire trying to escape the worst of the wind. Shaun was covered with a duvet and a large bothy appeared. Once we were ensconced out of the wind Shaun was fed malt loaf and warm drinks. Amazingly quickly, he started to resemble a human being again, and the as the rest of us fed and watered the spirits began to rise. Suddenly things didn't seem so serious, rather this was a bit of a adventure. Aware of the short days we broke camp and continued on, several of the gusts almost taking us from our feet. The final top of the day was reached, and as we slowly worked our way back down the ridge we dropped below the cloud and back into reality. A few slips, slides and flailing axes and the car park was in sight.
The course was over, but we wanted to continue the practice the following day, Ant was keen on a Munro, the rest of us had to admit defeat, so we spent the following day exploring the amazing valley, Lairig Ghru. Ant reckons that next year he'll have to take us on a car tour and ensure the tartan blanket is covering our knees....I think the alternative of snow holing or winter climbing might win the day.
I think we all came away much better equipped to navigate in hostile conditions on what we had previously considered featureless terrain. I must admit at times I questioned why I was struggling through such difficult conditions, but would I have missed it.....not likely.
Mark