Page 26 - 2018 AMA Summer

EXPEDITIONNEWS
CADET CENTRE FOR ADVENTUROUS TRAINING
WINTER
WONDERLAND
By Cath Davies
On Saturday 10 March ten intrepid volunteers arrived in Aviemore to undertake a week’s winter training
with the Cadet Centre for Adventurous Training (CCAT), which had deployed from it’s headquarters and home base of Capel Curig to Feshiebridge Lodge. One candidate was undertaking Winter Climbing Foundation (WCF) and the other nine were on Winter Mountain Foundation (WMF). The climber was an ex regular holding JSRCI but the nine mountaineers had a very varied range of experience, from none at all (the only cadet on the trip) to recent trips to the Higher Ranges. As several were ex regulars, they had participated in alpine mountaineering on occasions like BATUS tours, but these experiences were now distant memories! This is one if the joys of CCAT, the very varied groups who end up operating together.
Accepting everyone had travelled a long way, after supper Kev Edwards, the OC of CCAT, gave the welcome brief and let them settle in. We issued kit on Sunday morning, let everyone pack a rucksack and headed out locally to practise use of boots and ice axe. Once this was squared away, it was find a steep slope and get sliding! Kev wisely has a store of old waterproofs for this activity, so we
went at it with gusto and had an enjoyable few hours nailing self arrest from sitting, frontwards, backwards, feet first and headfirst. We then moved further up the valley to find a slope to dig a snow pit and demonstrate a Rauch block, before regaining the Cairngorm car park by sitting glissade! The climbers headed into Coire an t Sneachda onto Twin Ribs for a training session, then ascended via the Fiachall to the plateau and bagged a couple of monros before descending via point 1141.
‘The top part is steep and one of the novices experienced the shock of exposure and froze’
Monday dawned sunny and windless, so our plan to head into Coire an t Sneachda to find ice for crampon work then ascend onto the Fiachall Ridge and thus gain the plateau was sound. Kev joined myself and the other SMF instructor Glyn to lower ratios and we trekked in to the bowl of the coire in perfect conditions to introduce the novices to crampon work and enable those who had previously worn crampons to refresh their skills. Once everyone was confident and competent, we demon-
strated our skills by a mass Dancing on Ice impression, me of course demonstrat- ing a perfect Pas de Bas, being Scottish! Then it was straight up the snow slopes to gain the shoulder of the ridge at the start of the difficulties. The top part is steep and one of the novices experienced the shock of exposure and froze. Kev was
26 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER