Hi All,

Just seeking some advice, thinking about spending Christmas in Cairngorms as will not have kids. Map reading good, Good experience in mountains and I will be prepared for at least -10 with bag and shelter with 5 days food just in case. Only issue is no experience with Crampons and Ice axe. The plan is to do a course in Jan but no children over Christmas eve - boxing day . If weather crap then I will bail out and do something else. I anticipate the inevitable answers however advice is still welcome. Cheers Garth

Your plan sounds a bit cart before the horse, to put it politely. Could you get on a course in the next few weeks?

If you’ve not got winter experience the cairngorms are likely to be a tough place to be (think whiteouts, navigational challenges, blizzard, difficult terrain to navigate with etc) and especially if camping out solo.  The weather can be fairly hostile up on the plateau over the winter.  Not a place you’d want to discover your bag wasn’t warm enough etc. 

What about camping/bothies at lower level with some hills each day?  It’ll give you options to bail if you don’t feel up to it/the weather is dire, is likely to be (a bit) milder etc? 

Yeah, the valley routes are also fairly inspiring so you could spend a good few days exploring the range, particularly if you wanted to take in some of Tarf and Tilt, Glen Feshie, Glen Avon etc. Plus a Cairngorm valley route has the potential for pretty much everything the British mountains can throw at you except steep icy ground - even the main passes get up to about 800m, you can get blizzards, river crossings, navigation in zero visibility, deep snow etc.

Or you might get a mild patch with almost no snow on the ground and be pottering around in a t-shirt picking off munros. Who knows these days...

Aside from no experience with axe and crampons, there's also the avy danger to think about. Although this might be mitigated with sound route choice.