We met everyone at Cobbs café in Aviemore to kick start a weekend of introductory winter mountain skills. As ever the group of six were from a wide background. Two couples and two friends from various parts of the UK, most of whom hadn't met before but all had the common goal of learning to start their winter mountain activity with the correct ideas on safety. Only one of the group had done any real winter mountaineering in the past but was admittedly rusty. 

Over coffee we discussed: ideas around personal management of clothing and equipment; looked at the expected weather for today and tomorrow, and discussed plans and locations. These chats are often a good chance to develop good thinking around how to dress and prepare so the usual subject of layering came to the fore. Quite often it's about what not to wear as people often have plenty of gear these days so the talk becomes centred around not over dressing when powering up a mountainside! Shell gear was discussed and though people understood the need for good waterproof jackets and trousers the emphasis on gaitors always has to be insisted upon. They're not optional! Otherwise you'd never keep the snow out of your boots! That other prominent pre-emptive instruction given by Scottish mountain instructors of "never put your gloves down unattended" had to be highlighted in the comfort of the café! In fact, never leave anything on it's own in a Cairngorm wind - including rucksacks - if you ever want to see them again.

So, with the chat over, we headed up to Coire na ciste and began the ascent into Coire Laogh Mor where there were some good sites for some intro training. The first part of the morning was devoted to ideas around ice axe arrest and the reactions required to stop slides and falls on frozen snow (neve).  These sessions are always great fun even though the subject matter is quite serious. It's not easy to get your head around the choreography or movement required to stop a slide with your ice axe pick and indeed,  one of the great problems in winter mountain activity is the fact that people just don't get a chance to practice this on a regular basis. It was good to see people developing confidence with the movements as the realisation dawned that you do, in fact, have some control over your slide if it comes to that!

It was a windy day with a severe wind chill so all seven of us had lunch in the group shelter demonstrating how effective a bit of kit it is. It's always difficult to remove people from the shelter afterwards though! With the wind still gusting to gale force we proceeded to dig different styles of emergency shelters. This always warms people up followed by the amazement at how quiet and warm it is inside the quick shelter. 

Day one finished with a look at avalanche assessment and how to dig a snow profile so as to test the slope. We only had a single layer of snow at todays altitude so we went through the mechanics of the exercise with the expectation of finding some wind slab tomorrow. What we hope to teach people is the need for good routines prior to going to the mountain route. Check the recent weather in terms of wind direction  - this will tell you where the snow has been deposited in lee slopes. Also check the recent freezing level alongside wind direction - after all, only cold snow below freezing can be transported and packed into lee slopes. And if you must ascend or descend steeper ground then examination of the snow pack is essential. So with these ideas in mind the group began to dig, islolate, assess layers and load the snow pack to see what they could glean. As mentioned it was a single snow layer so no discernible difference was obvious. What was plain though was that the snow pack was at around 1 degree, slightly thawed and no wind slab was present - good and safe. Tomorrow we would get above the freezing level and see quite different conditions.

Day Two: Mountain Navigation day.

The day dawned sunny with summit temps at around -6 and winds quite light. We met over the map table to look at the essential ideas around micro navigation on the mountain. Having grasped the methods for measuring distance and taking bearings on the map we set off for the Fiacaill a Choire Cas ridge to access the Cairngorm plateau. It was a little too perfect with great visibility and comfortable conditions. Exactly the opposite weather to that which demands perfect navigational skill when you depend on it. Still, it's always easier to teach and chat when no one is shivering! So we worked through the core nav skills of pacing and compass bearings with everyone experiencing the satisfaction that comes from finding targets with a map and compass.

After lunch on the summit of Cairngorm the mist rolled in and we were suddenly in a white out situation. Couldn't have planned it better if we'd tried. This served to illustrate the importance of the micro nav skills as we headed towards a white space to find more targets allowing us to safely get off the mountain. Very satisfying. On the descent we also came across some wind slab deposits which enabled us to see the differences in the snowpack after yesterdays avalanche training. As we ended 4 hours of navigation training we also took another opportunity on the descent to practice with crampons on a frozen stream course before more ice axe arrest training and some security ropework on some good firm snow.

All in all a great weekend with varied winter conditions allowing everyone concerned to enjoy a full intro to winter skills. We finished with the understanding that one weekend does not a mountaineer make and everyone was keen to take on more training in the future.