Winter & Mountain Skills Residential

Winter Skills & Winter Mountains, Cairngorms National Park
Join us in Scotland to experience the mountains in Winter over six-days in February. Each day we’ll seek out the best locations within the Cairngorms National Park and surrounding areas to learn about safe ways to travel and appreciate the mountains for Winter walking and mountaineering. A firm favourite in our programme calendar, this is an opportunity to come together with other individuals to expand your outdoor skills in the snow and ice of Scottish Winter - cameras at the ready!

Example itinerary (this may change depending on the weather, prevailing conditions and needs of the group):

Day 1: Meet up with your instructors and teammates for the week, introductions and making plans, boots and crampon fitting, gearing up to go into the snow;
Day 2: Introduction to safe Winter travel, snow pack and ice axe and crampon skills;
Day 3: Skills practice including ice axe arrests, Winter journeying, digging emergency shelters, Winter navigation;
Day 4: Taking skills onto different terrain - snow, ice, rock and mixed terrain;
Day 5: Journeying and summits - plan a journey and/or Winter summits using the skills learnt from the week to take the lead and build confidence in your skills;

Day 6: A morning of activity in the local area before early afternoon departures depending on homeward transport arrangements.

Location: You will be meeting in Aviemore, a small town in the Cairngorms with good rail and bus links. Aviemore can be reached from all areas and directions and has good links with Edinburgh and Glasgow (including these airports) as well as travel centres such as London, Manchester and Newcastle from the South for onward connections.

Accommodation: You'll stay in a local bunkhouse. All bunkhouses have fully equipped kitchens and separate male/ female bathrooms (please get in touch if you require gender neutral facilities so we can look at options with you). Note that you will need to bring your own sleeping bag, pillow and towel.

Food: Food is included for the duration of your programme. We'll provide breakfasts, lunches and dinners and also have plenty of snacks. If you have any special dietary requirements, please let us know well in advance so we can cater for you, by filling out our consent form when booking.

Important: Our Open residential programmes are usually set up in a way that requires participants to be fully independent. If you (or the person you are booking for) requires any additional support or has specific needs, please contact us before booking so we can ensure we are able to put suitable support and adjustments in place.