Home for a (long) night

I know this is awful - but stick with me - it could be the hardest fought blip of the year!
A snowholing expedition to Cairngorm this weekend - which obviously meant an immediate shift to the default weather setting of 'epic'. Calling at the rangers station to log our plan - he cheerily told me that we were the only group heading onto the hill - unheard of for a weekend in January. With some top tips garnered we headed up and over - navigating by paces and using the group as markers, head first into 40mph winds, until we carefully rounded and climbed back into, Ciste Meherad.
Digging a snowhole is hot damp work, to make a shelter for four took us nearly 3 hours, and we finished just as the light was waning. By now the wind was rising dramatically - and I just managed to make it to the other side of the corrie to grab this (which I've tweaked as much as possible to make appear).
Inside the snowhole, stoves on and kit laid out it was great, there's an ambient temperature of around minus 1 degC, so with the right kit and a steady supply of tea and biscuits all was good. We set an alarm to get up and check the entrance (lower than us to retain warmth and soak away carbon mon/di-oxide) & it was good that we did, as at 2am we needed to re-tunnel out 2m, then back to our sleeping bags. Sounds awful I know, but we'd been tucked up from 8pm, cosy & warm, and we all went back to sleep till nearly 7am so felt pretty chilled (excuse the pun), which, considering what was to come next, was a good thing...
...to be continued.