Thursday 27 December
While most of the group languished in bed or put in a token appearance at work, four of the group headed for Grantown-on-Spey, braving some fairly ordinary driving conditions in order to do so. Despite the weather warnings, the road proved to be quite passable, with a couple of inches of fresh snow being encountered on the way up to the Drumochter pass. Car speeds were reduced to 30 to 40 mph, which proved to be a bit of a problem for Mark, who did his utmost to encourage Henry to overtake cars in a driving blizzard with 3 or 4 inches of snow on the road in the dark. Henry refused. Mark made up for it by driving the last leg, although on arrival at the car park he did reversed Henry's car into a wall while asking some unrelated question about gear or food. Whatever the question was, it was not as important as the position of the wall, which Henry pointed out to Mark in the politest possible way.

After settling in Henry and Mark went to the pub to get fed, and soon after Jill and Caroline turned up for a beer.

Friday 28 December
Despite dire weather warnings from the AA and instructions not to venture out on to the road unless absolutely necessary to do so, most of the rest of the group spent the day driving up to Grantown under blue sky and with very little trouble (except for a little run-in with the local police near Glasgow for speeding - thanks Nick for warning the rest of us).

Henry and Mark went to have a look at Corrie an Sneachda. Despite bad visibility on the way in, they got there eventually and judging the conditions to be very thin, climbed an easy gulley up near the goat track. They then went for a walk around the top of the corrie, but as there was a great deal of unconsolidated snow the going was very slow. Henry having managed to drop his hammer at the top of the gulley they climbed, he and Mark decided it was not a fantastic day of achievement.

Saturday 29 December
Due to an amazing amount of non-faffing, and in spite of the weather not looking too promising, most parties got an early start and headed out into the hills.

Mark and Nick went off to Corrie an Sneachda in a howling blizzard only to find when they got there that all the routes were still pretty thin and very busy. They went up to the side of Goat Track Gulley and wandered around a bit at the top of cairngorm before descending via the ski area.

Brad and John B parked in the Cairngorms Aviemore ski car park and headed off to Coire an Lochain. Finding themselves in Corrie an Sneachda an hour and a half later, they decided to change route plans and headed off for Broken Gully. Finding themselves at the base of Red Gully II/III** 20 mins later, they decided this was as good a route as any and forged ahead.

Vanessa, Rob, Clare, Catherine H, and new member Sue headed off for Tomintoul, correctly ignoring a "Road Closed due to Snow" sign but cunningly allowing a number of small vehicles to test the hills before venturing down them. Parking in the town they headed off along the river in strong winds and falling snow, but when the cloud lifted slightly and the snow stopped they bravely decided to venture up to the top of the ridge. Of course the wind was worse up top, sending great blasts of powdery snow rushing across the hilltops, but they were rewarded for their perseverance by the sight of a number of hares in their winter coats and a great herd of deer moving across the hills.

Rob heroically volunteered to wade through the thigh-deep snow first, making a path for the remainder of the party but forgetting that he was half a head taller than Clare and Vanessa who were forced to introduce a step between his. After a brief stop for lunch and a prolonged discussion about the weather moving in, they decided to head back down the ridge and along a pleasant jeep track to Tomintoul.

Henry took a group of people out on a mini winter skills day. They went to the Caringorm car park and headed up towards the Fiacall ridge, where they hoped to do a little ice axe arrest on the snow. They talked about avalanches, dug a snow pit and then headed up the ridge to find a patch of snow. Unfortunately the snow was not solid enough to practise, but Henry did manage a demonstration of self arrest.

The group then split in two with Sara R, John H, Brendon and Daniel carrying on to the corrie to have a look at the climbing and Henry, Sara G, Jill and Caroline heading back to the car park with a bit of navigation practise to occupy them. After demonstrating pacing, walking on a bearing in a white out and timing your progress, it became clear that this was the end of a day with too much listening, and Henry finally put a sock in it and they marched back to the car park to enjoy the warmth of the car heater.