Today we hit the slopes of Coire na Ciste again to look at some more winter skills. Initially the snow pack was harder than first thought, so the winter skills started with Mark slashing steps up and down the slope to help with movement.
We also looked at making bucket seats, then reinforcing them with snow anchors such as buried axes and snow bollards - then testing them to destruction!... Gwilym tried to pull us from our seats, then we loaded the buried axes with two people, and finally ended with abseiling off of our snow bollards - with a intermediate stance in which we used a stomper belay to lower each other back to the rucksacks.
We also had a look at digging into the slope to create a shelter... very hard work and very tiring!
All in all, a very fun and productive day to learn and develop skills. Big thanks to Gwilym, you can see his blog here.