Snow often lies on mountains around the 4,000ft mark year round in Scotland. So you will need to know how to deal with snow if you are planning to tackle any of them.
Tip 1: yaktraxTake ice grips such as Yaktrax in your rucksack if you think you may encounter icy conditions. Yaktrax increase your grip on ice but are useless on fresh, powdered snow. If you go hiking in winter and have crampons you could take these instead however it is not necessary to buy them just for snow capped peaks in summer.
Tip 3: cornicesCornices on Ben Nevis
This is the most important point made in this page! If snow is on the ground keep well away from the edge of the mountain as there may be cornices that you are unable to see. If you stand on one of these cornices it will most probably collapse and you will be dropped off of the mountain. Cheerful, I know!
|
Tip 2: snow capsIf you are taking hiking poles be sure that the snow caps (the round things that can be screwed on above the cap) are on. This will prevent your walking poles from sinking into the snow as much and thus means that you have to use less energy to pull them up.
Tip 4: no snowballsDon't throw snowballs... Sorry! But incase you didn't know: snow is cold. If you chuck a snowball at someone and it slides down their back or neck they are going to be frozen the whole way home (not fun). Not only is it not fun but you may actually be putting them at risk of hypothermia.
tip 5: stick to pathsStick to paths or follow cairns. Snow covers up dangers so you may end up tripping over something you couldn't see from above. By sticking to paths or following cairns you can minimise this risk as the land owners have most probably removed large boulders from paths. You should only follow substantial cairns as smaller cairns could have been made by one person and could lead you in the wrong direction.
|
Note: If you plan to go walking in snow in Winter then you will also need to know how to use ice axes and crampons. Unfortunately this information is not available at the moment on this site. We will try to add this information ASAP. Sorry for any inconvenience.