Snowy fun on Aonach Mor

We headed up to Aonach Mor via the gondola at Nevis Range on the 22nd to play in the snow. This was an intentionally easy day, to look at ice axe arrest, snow belays and the snowpack in general.  We encountered soft powder, very unstable windslab, and iron hard neve. We chose the neve to slide on, which was fast and bruising at first, and then funny, as the runs became slower and slower the more we slid. The windslab was classic hard slab,  overlying a couple of softer layers with clear and easy failures (you only had to look at it really and it slid). Finally, we built a shovel-up in the powder- a good diversion and kept us warm whilst building it.

Isolated block of windslab that slid on a soft fluffy underlying layer with minimal tickling.

 

 A pair of the local ptarmigan feeding and displaying to one another. 

Finished shovel up, bijou, but room for two if they are friends.