Information and photos of my mountaineering trips in Scotland,England and Wales:
Including hillwalking,scrambling and easy rock climbing.Also via ferrata, skiing and alpine trips in Europe.

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Wednesday 24 February 2010

MIC Course - Glenmore Lodge, 24th February 2010

Myself, Bill, Mark and Willy were at Glenmore Lodge in Aviemore participating as "mock client" for the guys doing their MIC (Mountain Instructor Certificate). All we had to do was turn up and pay for food and accommodation and hopefully in return get free instruction for two days.
As usual everything through the lodge is first class, unfortuneatly that couldn't be said of the weather!
For over a week before we arrived the Cairngorms had almost alpine conditions - until we arrived.
Throughout the night of tuesday into wednesday the weather changed, and as we waded into Coire an t-Sneachda towards the Trident Gully we soon realised that it was going to be a hard day. Low cloud, strong wind and lots of spindrift made the MIC candidtaes jobs of trying to teach in front of their assessors impossibly difficult.
The decision was made not to attempt any climbs on the main cliffs, ie The Runnel, so instead most parties headed for the Twin Ribs area on the east side of the Fiacaill Ridge. It was too wild and windy to bother taking photos, but we briefly managed to cover taking coils, moving together, building belays and abseiling off a route.
After the very difficult job of navigating back to the car park (not by us though), it back to the lodge for some much deserved tea and cake.           

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