Winter Climbing in the Cairngorms, Mar'11

For my Winter Mountain Leader assessment, I need to do at least 10 recognised Winter climbs at Grade 1 or above. I had no idea what this meant, so booked myself onto Glenmore's 'Introduction to Winter Climbing' two-day course. Two of us, Mark and myself were expertly taught the winter climbing techniques by Nancy Chalmers. My knot-work needs a bit of practice, but I now know what a 'Grade 1' defines. Pictured is Mark, chuffed after we'd climbed up through deep snow and on ice to the top of 'Jacob's Ladder' above Coire an t-Sneachda, just west of Cairngorm's summit. More pictures are on my Flickr pages.