Winter rescue skills practice

Although it isn’t exactly T-shirt weather here in the Lakes, it has definitely been an unseasonably warm start to 2012.  I did manage to do some ice climbing on Helvellyn a couple of weeks before Christmas but it has been really warm since then.  So I and a few other members of the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team had to head off to Cairngorm for a weekend to refresh and practice our winter skills. 

Cairngorm area January 2012

The walk in - patchy snow cover

 Even there the snow cover in many places is significantly less than we would have expected at this time of year.  One of the associated problems is that some areas hosting rarer plant species are more vulnerable to damage.

Most of the weekend was spent practicing skills that we don’t often have the opportunity to use but can be crucial on rare occasions. So we worked on generally Grades 1 and 2 mixed terrain practicing lowering and down-climbing sections, stomper belays and snow belays.

A bonus to the weekend was spotting a ptarmigan in winter plumage and arctic choughs.  Anything that overwinters in Cairngorm has to be a hardy bird!

Spot the Ptarmigan

  We returned to almost spring-like conditions in the Lakes. The days are bright and sunny but the crisp, frosty mornings remind us that it is still winter.  If a very cold spell sets in now, it will nip a lot of early growth amongst the vegetation.  For the time being though we can make progress with the Trust’s outdoor projects so I’ll be writing about those next time.