Cairn Gorm Snowhole

[mgmt!]

Be careful what you commit yourself too, Lisa from club has asked if i fancied building and sleeping in a snow hole ? it was on some bucket list or other. She has been asking from the first of the winter snow when we would be going. I must admit i wasnt looking forward to it as i hadnt done it before and was a bit apprehensive of how it would pan out. Anyway the forecast this weekend was very good, we got the nod from Peter in the club who was doing a snow hole this week as part of his winter ml coarse on a decent site, so there was no holding us back.
Milesy was supposed to be coming up with us but got delayed, we gave him a grid refrence for our site and travelled north to the car park for cairn gorm. Our intended site was about 500 metres east of the highest ski tow at the ptarmigan restaurant. we set of with heavy laden with over night gear and took it easy heading up the tourist track to cairn gorm. Weather was perfect, blue skies light wind, it was all very alpine esq.
When we got to our site we met with 6 guys from the north of England, they had dug 2 snow holes, 1 large one where they intended to sleep and 1 to cook in. They offered us there cooking hole to sleep in but we said we wanted to have a go and dig our own. Was good to no we always had the option if we failed. It was 4pm when we started th e dig.

Lisa starting the dig

i wont go into the technicalities of how to dig a snow hole, what i will say is its bloody hard work it took us 3 and a half hours of back breaking digging before we finally shaped something resembling a usable snow hole .

2 sweaty diggers

Just on cue Milesy showed up, we didnt think he was coming his last txt had said he had stopped at Dalwhinnie and was feeling poorly. We opted for him to sleep in the other guys spare shelter as i certainly could have started to dig some more.

Milesy arrives at our des res

we wasted no time in getting our dinner on, i was feeling very dehydrated, and was glad of the well 30 metres fro the snow hole.

dinner time

after we had eaten it was only about 8pm, it was a lovely starry night, we wernt far from the summit of cairn gorm so we decided to do a bit of night navigation and head to the summit.

getting ready to head to the summit

we took a bearing for the top ski tow and one straight to the summit. there is something magical about being on the mountains at night and even better with a clear sky and the stars in full bloom. we reached the summit and took the obligatory summit shots

Lisa at the summit

summit picture

We sat at the summit with our head torches off, just looking at the stars and enjoying the moment. then it was time to make our way back to the snow hole for a wee dram before we turned in.

night cap

i dont no what it is with me but i never seem to take good pictures, i was so busy digging the hole there was no time to take pictures and the cold took the life out of my camera during the night but i did manage 1 shot of the entrance in the morning

entrance

view of ben avon from our site

All in all it was a great wee trip and one i was glad to have done, it was a cold night, i would have made our sleeping platforms a bit wider as i could feel the coldness of the walls during the night , not to mention i was a bit claustrophobic. Seeing as we were in the cairngorms and high up (1100 metres ) Lisa,s compromise for me helping her with her snow hole was a traverse over to coire an t sneachda for a solo climb of crotched gully , we didnt have the space or weight for ropes and gear but i will do another trip report for that, this report has taken me all night

[Beaner001]

Wow, from the comfort of my desk at work I'd say I'd quite fancy trying that.......
Well done

[Mountainlove]

Fantastic effort...3.5hours ...gulp! The snow hole looked great and at least from the pictures pretty cosy
Well done to all of you!!!

[mgmt!]

Thanks for the replies, for all the sweat involved I'm actually dying to get back out and do it again

[Milesy]

Nice one Michael. I managed to get a bunch of photos as well, of both the digging and also the next day down into Sneachda etc! I'll upload them for you.

[Scotjamie]

Jeez that's not a hole, that's a snow 'mansion'!
Only stayed once in a snowhole on a winter survival course...barely room for one, with no doric columns at the entrance. Nicely done and looks like a great outing.

[Jimmy Craghopper]

Nice one michael its alot nicer than Maryhill Hope too catch up with you this year and maybe throw in a couple of corbetts

[gman]

Very luxurious, looks like hard work though

[gaffr]

Maybe a wee refinement.... but smoothing off the edges in the roof/walls can control the dripping when the chamber warms up. But perhaps you left the entrance open to allow cold air to circulate?

[Bubba Ribeye]

Wow! That 'snow hole' should be on Grand Designs It's palatial! In fact ..I'm moving in soon as ...Squatters Rights....what's the grid reference? The Llarig Ghru and the Rothiemurcus Forest are my favourite places. I 'bounced' the Cairngorm 4000ers and wild camped on Angels Peak with the wild reindeer. It's awesome out there..doing it again soon hopefully.