For several years I had wanted to do some snow and ice climbing in Scotland, but either I was unavailable or the weather conditions were not suitable. It was the Easter holidays in 1978 when two of my climbing and rescue friends invited me to join them on a five day climbing expedition in the Cairngorms.

We boarded the train in Selby for the short journey to York where we transferred onto the Inverness train for the long journey up to Avimore station in the highlands of Scotland.  On arrival we caught the nearest taxi to take us on a fifteen minute drive to the car park in Corrie Cas.  After leaving the relative comfort and warmth of the taxi we set of along the trail for Coire an t-Sneachda. Loaded up with packs just under fifty pounds in weight the walk took us a good hour before we were able to pitch our tents on the snow and ice in the Coire. 

We spent an amazing four days snow and ice climbing in the coire. Looking back I cannot believe the weather we had, I remember it was exceptionally cold once the sun disappeared behind the mountains, I was grateful for my down sleeping bag to keep me reasonably warm during the hours of darkness.  During the day once the sun rose we had some great weather though we had some early morning starts to climb the ice walls before they started to thaw. There was lots of snow and ice and lots of overhanging snow cornices which we climbed through on some of our assents. Crampons and Ice axes were a necessity as well as our hard hats. 

On one of our days we had a break from climbing and decided to walk to the summit of Cairngorm and along the Lairig Ghru one of the best known hill-passes in Scotland. It climbs to an altitude of 2,700 feet and crosses through the central part of the Cairngorms, one of the wildest and bleakest areas in the country. I remember quite vividly watching and listening to avalanches over on Ben Macdui the second highest mountain in Scotland. The sound of the avalanches was quite scary, it was just as though we were in the middle of a thunder storm with the thunder crashing above our heads, although we were relatively safe and away from the affected areas it certainly kept you on your toes. As well as the constant threat of avalanches I was surprised to see so many remnants of world war two aircraft that had crashed into the mountainside. A sad reminder of the loss of life in such a remote place.

Another memory I have of this visit was the constant sound of the Ptarmigan, its constant rattling call seemed to linger around the corrie during our stay there. The ptarmigan is a plump gamebird, slightly larger than a grey partridge. In winter it becomes totally white except for its tail and eye-patch, which remain black. It breeds in the highest mountains of the Highlands of Scotland. Due to its winter coat it made them very difficult to see in the snow, but you could certainly hear them.

This was a great expedition and one which I can remember quite vividly some forty years later. I returned to the same area in the summer of 2006 whilst staying at the Boat of Garten and was quite surprised to see how the area around the Corrie Cas car park had changed since our visit in 1978. Today the whole area is a thriving winter Ski resort.