The Glenshee outing the previous weekend and the deep snow drifts in places had sharpened my mind towards snowholing. With an imminent thaw, I took Friday off work and bussed out to Keiloch, to go up and recce Coire Boidheach where I’d had a few winter overnighters and maybe stay over. I popped up to the car park facilities, and was surprised to note that the toilets have had an anonymous voluntary touch of care.

The day was sparkling fresh heading up through the forest, with iced puddles, blue sky, and a light snow covering heading up beyond the falls.

The forecast had been for fog higher up, and following the Glas Allt out of the woods I could see a large cloud bank slowly heaving it’s darkness towards me

Once under the cloud the bitter wind, now laced with spindrift, stung my face as it funnelled between the hills Beag and Mor. I thought to start snow-questing in the gully; it was tough going: a foot of fresh and slabby snow, sometimes overlaid over hard old neve, but not well bonded; chunks of it crumbled and slipped off easily and as the sides steepened I decided it was a bit risky so climbed higher to shallower lee slopes. I threw on an extra lightweight windproof over my Montane softshell, adding just enough extra resistance to retain some heat from the relentless trudging.

Reaching the burn of 2 birches I stopped to take stock, get some calories down and gather the last unfrozen water. I’d hoped to get to Coire Boidheach in 3 hours and then with plenty daylight, try some experimentation with snow shelter techniques. Now, slowed by the wind and snow, I’d have limited time to get there, try and construct something, then if the decision was to bale, to get down off of rough terrain before dark.

I had a poke with my avalanche probe in some big drifts upstream of the ford, there was good depth there but a different aspect than the coire would be. The food had heartened me and I started briskly up the climb to Carn a Choire Bhoidheach, with the visibility dropping as I headed into misty gloom.

I’d erred slightly south of the top; not passing the clusters of rocks before the small mound at the top. I zig-zagged a bit to found the top which I needed to get a bearing on the next leg – a bit more care required heading across the plateau’s featureless void from now on.

Initially a few rocks and tussocks provided aim points, but then very flat light had my eyes straining around the pale gloom for anything perceptible, once the timer indicated “almost there”, the slight increasing of slope to my left had me carefully heading downwards, wary of the potential for cornices and drops.

I found the bottom of the shallow gully and was glad of some respite from the wind; but time to set to work first probing and then shovelling as I needed to promptly decide whether to stay or flee from the void. The north side was harder old snow and would be too tough to dig, but the south side was mostly fresher, and I quickly dug in a metre. This was workable; I’d give it an hour and see how I got on.

Of course once through the soft layer, it was into hard neve which required some grunting and swearing while getting the upper body weight swinging with heft to hack chunks out. 2 hours in I’d made a big enough space to sleep albeit leaving my kit outside. Decision made: I’d stay, and work the remaining daylight to create more headroom and some space inside to unpack, and generally add finesse.

I’d collected heather twigs earlier below the snowline, thinking I might have time to try building a quinzhee (dug out snow dome) where you put twigs through the ‘ceiling’ then when digging outwards they indicate when you are reaching the limit to retain wall thickness. They came in handy to prop my little thread of lights around.

I cooked up the meal for the night: one dehydrated camping meal sachet, with another of couscous to bolster calories ahead of a cold night. I also glugged my one luxury item: a “winter spruce IPA” an unusual potion for sure. Before turning in, it was time to head out for a night hike: get some body heat up, and help dry out the clothes from all the dampness from excavating the hole earlier. The stiff breeze outside was foggy but not too much spindrift which would defeat the aim. I attached a bike blinky to a pole outside as a beacon to help me navigate back, and trudged off into the plateau’s dark night.

Heading into the fog, my headtorch “bloomed” reflecting off the wall of grey, barely penetrating. An old trick is to wear it around your waist in such conditions to reduce glare, but fortunately I also had a “long throw” hand torch which when held low (like a cars fog lamps) provide much better penetration.

I headed away until the blink was only barely perceptible through the fog, then circuited around the corrie, through waves and whirls of smooth snow, peppered occasionally with tracks of hares and ptarmigan. I could hear the occasional distant ptarmigurgle through the wind.

I remembered to activate chemical hand warmer sachets and place in the boots, and also to tuck the laces inside to stop them freezing. I checked the temperature (bluetooth thermometer hung from the pole outside) : -6c, with it probably a few degrees warmer inside. The exertions of the day had me drifting off to sleep quickly.

The pre-dawn alarm had me reluctant to budge from my coziness, but I launched outside to do a pee, and headed back in and back to bed: the fog was thicker and no sunrise would be seen today. An hour later I eventually arose to get porridge and hot chocolate for breakfast, before considering the day’s plan. There’d be no sight-seeing today, but I’d take a look at Coire an Daimh Mhoile before heading around Lochnagar. Navigation in the gloom would be tricky so I thought through a strategy. I packed up and it was time once more to march into the void. The boots which had successfully not frozen were however pretty damp, and I put 2 bread bags over the fresh socks then into the boots to give a dry start to the day.

As I fumbled through the murk closing on the target, conditions were fully “white out” and disorientating – creeping forward carefully placing feet as there was no indication of form or texture. I got out my “whiteout string” to throw in front, it has a carabiner for weight and a loop of elastic for the wrist. It slipped down over the pole one time and it occurred to me that it could actually work better attached to the pole-tip, so I tied it behind the basket and then cast it forward like a fly-fisher: this worked pretty well, flicked or rolled like a spey-cast, albeit the ‘cast’ sometimes snarled into my back. I moved forward with more confidence now I could see the ‘ground’ marked by the dark string.

The slope tilted downwards as I entered the top of the gully, and barely visible in the gloom icey walls towered above. Today I’d not head down but decided to do one last leg of navigation to find the “tourist path” around Lochnagar.

I crossed the upper Glas Allt then the path, barely visible except a few post-holes, the across a boulder field where small shapes moved amongst the rocks. Eventually the main tourist path with it’s cairns appeared out of the fog, whew, easy times were back and the fiercely gripped compass was tucked away.

As I made my way around the corrie rim, a few other hikers appeared; I commiserated with a few visitors who’d not seen the great views to the lochan. Lower down more appeared who’d likely not make it beyond Meikle Pap today. I’d expected to get under cloud, but it was not to be, with the grey surrounding me all the way to Balmoral.

A shame about the scenic deficit, but an adventure had and some skills improved by the challenge, and fitness tested. I hope to still make it out this winter and try a quinzhee or other snow shelter form; let’s see what the weather brings, but running out of time now – I can feel spring is impatient to flourish.

Kit List

Elsewhere online I was asked about a kit list for this kind of trip, so I’ve added it below with some notes for future reference. This was a pretty light load for this kind of trip. Total weight was about 12.7kg in and including the rucksack and the odd thing strapped to it.

Lightwave Fastpack 50L rucksack 1.15kg – decent pack, improves on my wildtrek 60 with side pockets.

Sleeping bag + drybag, vango venom 600 1.3kg – not a great bag, but does ok – slept mostly clad inside it at -6c

liner 0.2kg – saves the bother of washing and drying a sleeping bag as much by protecting it from some dirt

Sleeping pad, vaude norsken 0.66kg. – at it’s limit heading below -6c

pillow 0.15kg

crampons + bag, grivel monte rosa 0.95kg – sometimes I take crampons & spikes, but I correctly guessed the day would be mostly about grip on old neve and not so much icey compacted path. I could have probably used my black diamond alu crampons which are lighter and less robust: more snow than expected, so I thought they’d get more thrashed on rocky stuff, so took steel ones.

Ice axe, cassin ghost 0.21kg (“stupid” light but ok for terrain with nothing technical or steep) – wouldn’t have been the thing to take if I’d wanted to hack about in Coire Daimh Mhoile

Shovel, black diamond 0.6kg – I weighed this afterwards, I’d been under the impression it was lighter than my norwegian army weapon – not so. It did ok in the tougher snow. Not taking my lighter carbon-handled shovel was the correct shout.

Rab pulsar pro down jacket 0.5 – good warmth at rest. I’d have taken a synthetic if there was heavy snowfall

polartec alpha vest 0.07 – used to attach pillow to mat

airmesh top 0.15 – spare base or for extra warmth, didn’t use but was close to needing it on the move (wearing a mountain equipment eclipse light grid-fleece base layer, montane dyna flex softshell over, occasionally a pertex windproof on top)

ME 3/4 primaloft trousers 0.3kg – great at rest in the snowhole

spare socks 0.07kg – essential, used under bread bags because of damp boots on day 2

montane symphony mitts without liners 0.2kg – great gloves, used on the plateau

decathlon liner gloves – lost another one, must have fallen out of a pocket, cheap but good

compass/map 0.05kg – bubbled compass is annoying, will relegate to spare. printed map marked with a few pre-calculated bearings, times and distances

inreach mini 0.1kg – essential to let contact know what I’m doing and where I’ve got to

silva cross trail 7R with large battery 0.25kg – only used for the brief night hike – but if there’s the chance of a night bale-out through rough terrain then a kick-ass headtorch is a must

nitecore nu25 0.03kg – inside the snowhole + backup

wuben e6 torch (narrow long-throw beam) 0.075kg – I consider this an essential for night route finding in rough conditions now

whiteout string 0.05kg – a tiny invention but does what it needs to do

camera + batteries panasonic LF1 0.22kg

avalanche probe decathlon 2.4m 0.26kg – cheap but good, this is the thicker one not decathlon’s thinner lighter one which is not as sturdy

saw 0.3kg – plain old wood saw. Didn’t use this time. Can chop slabs into useful shapes

water 1.5kg (+ melted more with stove) – mistake in that I should have boiled more at breakfast then kept a warm bottle inside jacket – water had frozen on the way out.

beer x1 0.46kg – nice to have a treat to look forward to

phone battery, cable, fairy lights 0.2kg

foam roll mat 0.1kg – used both as a backup to the inflatable mat (winter has a lot of spiky kit around) and also as a floor for sitting/excavating inside the hole

w’proof jacket columbia outdry 0.25kg (normally would have far burlier jacket than that if driving snow forecast)

w’proof trousers ME paclite 0.35kg (likewise)

1st aid 0.1kg

gaiters 0.2kg – essential in keeping snow out of the boot tops

tread lite gear chest pouch 0.06kg (handy to keep “on the move” stuff easily to hand)

cook kit, gas stove, pan, fork, 100ml canister 0.28kg

sunglasses 0.06kg (normally goggles too, was close to edge of suffering with these at points)

food 0.6kg – an assortment of unhealthy but calorific and non-freezing snacks, with dehydrated stuff for an evening meal and breakfast

small tripod 0.4kg (was going to film some stuff but never bothered due to conditions)