Scotland: Winter 2003

Every year in the first week of the Christmas holidays, in a vain attempt to chase snow, UBES heads North into the wilds of Scotland. This year, the base of operations was a bunkhouse in Nethy Bridge, a stone's throw from Aviemore town and the Cairngorm area. The place came complete with it's own self-service bar and large collection of hats, which was terribly convenient!

While Dave and Alex scampered off to attempt to use technical ice axes in one manner or another, the first two days for most people consisted of learning and practicing essential winter mountaineering skills. This involved learning how to use ice axes and crampons, ice axe arrests, snow shelters, and avalanche prediction. The first day of the course saw the best snowfall in the region that year, with extreme weather on the mountains pushing the temperature way below freezing and cutting visibility way down especially as the light faded. After dark we returned to the hut to defrost fingers, ears, eyelashes and beards!