The expedition involved 6 cadets as preparation for their summer expedition to the Swiss Alps in July 2013.
The team based themselves out of the very well positioned and furnished Feshiebridge Lodge. Luckily we were blessed weather that simulated the alpine environment perfectly and had the team wearing sun cream out of necessity on some days!
Day one was spent locally and the team adapted to winter rucksacks and the associated other equipment on a short journey into the Glen Feshie Hills, here the team learnt and practiced using their stiff winter boots to aid progress on various terrain as well as movement up, across and down steep snow slopes with and without an ice axe. We then donned the rope in teams and moved across some steep, broken rocky terrain onto higher snow slopes adapting the rope system used as we would in the Alps. A good warm up.
A drive on the second day to Lochaber to climb Beinn a’ Charoiann which involved a long walk in, large amount of height gain and high level traverse of a corniced ridge combined with some tricky navigation on the descent. All the ingredients for a grand day out! The approach today was initially through a Caledonian Pine forest next to a burn which tumbled steeply from the higher mountains, the sounds of the burn didn’t resound through the forest today as it was frozen with some spectacular ice formations around the waterfalls we walked past on the way up through the forest. This was also a good sign as the normally waterlogged ground was frozen solid making progress very easy for a change. We quickly made progress to the forward slopes of the mountain before turning to make for our means of ascent in the form of the steep North Ridge. The North Ridge gave a great Alpine style route with rocky steps and snow arętes for the rope teams before being plonked directly on the summit with a 360 degree vista of snow covered mountains. The ridge was quickly traversed before the descent of the South Ridge and retracing our steps back to our starting point.
Tired legs had a rest today starting from the 600m Cairngorm Ski Area Car Park. A relaxed approach to the day could be taken although we did experience some ‘Scottish ming’! Poor visibility and moderate winds combined with some snow meant for some buffeting as the team traversed the rims of Corries Lochain and Snechda before descending back to the ski car park, a day where people met new challenges in just moving and folk disappeared into their hoods and hid behind goggles against the biting wind. The afternoon was spent conversely lying on the picnic tables of the lodge in the warm sun!
The big bad Ben was awaiting us after leaving for the west coast at 6:15am. We arrived at the North Face car park just short of 8am and after sorting gear out, set off through the long winding forest track to the footpath that leads into the North Face. Progress was made quickly here and the vista in front of us was breathtaking, the North Face was plastered in snow and looked impressive standing tall against a bright azure sky. The team then embarked on the long grinding climb up the seemingly never ending west ridge of Carn Mor Dearg which stands directly opposite Ben Nevis. Numerous false summits were reached although a good degree of compensation could be taken from the lack of wind and views. Eventually we saw the summit some 500m away and tried legs and lungs were renewed only for the cloud to envelop us and take away any view to be replaced by white out conditions and a biting wind. We took a bearing off the summit onto the very alpine Carn Mor Dearg aręte. The team negotiated solid snow across the entire length of the aręte which ended with 200m to the summit with the added blessing of the now returning sunshine. On reaching the summit the team photo of the highest people in the UK at that time was taken. We then started down and descended number 4 gully through each person being lowered into it before easy snow slopes led quickly to the corrie floor. We then retraced our steps towards the North Face Car Park passing close by some grazing red deer during the pleasant amble down the path.
