Into the Dark

One of the things of being on a course is that you need to be with a group of similar minded folk. For me one of the key objectives I was keen to work on was some harsh conditions night time navigation - and if you're going to test yourself then there are few places as challenging and unforgiving as the Cairngorm Plateau in winter, at night.
Fortunately the group I was with were also keen to push themselves - so on Tuesday we set off out & mid afternoon found ourselves a sheltered spot to dig a hole in the snow & wait for it to go dark. With seven of us tucked up in our snowhole, the stove roaring away & with a single headtorch reflecting its light around the snow it was all very cosey. Before we knew it we'd all got a hot brew & it was starting to be noticeably dark outside. At this point we were still a fair few hours from base, and still well above the 1000m contour. We could also hear that the wind had picked up ahead of the forecast.
We packed away & headed out in to what appeared to be a full blown blizzard - I was suddenly very glad of the extra jacket I'd put on and the gloves I'd gone to great lengths to keep dry. As you can see from the picture conditions were just what we'd wanted - and soon we were moving from feature to feature making our way back to the coire floor. Progress was much slower than in the day - but the same core skills kept us on target - the mantra of trust your systems paid off and no-one was ever more that a few metres from the target point.
I've a feeling there are going to be a lot more nights out like this this year.