trail magazine and those winter routes

Whilst I was waking one morning last week, I was very surprised to hear mention of mountain walking and Trail magazine on the Today programme. Not their usual area of interest, but a good story none the less, listen to the article again, probably valid for a while. I read the article in question myself last week or so and was surprised that somewhere in the Cairngorms would be snow free in winter. Now the local mountain rescue and Chris Bonnington have said that Trail are wrong and the routes are not safe for snow free winter travel. Someone was rescued from waist deep snow last year on the Lairig Ghru route.
Walking on snow is not a trivial thing, yet it should be possible to walk in the hills in winter, maybe just not in the Cairngorms.
UPDATE: I mean that if you don't want snow, then it should be possible in winter, myself, I'm really looking forward to a bit of snowy mountaineeing in Scotland in February.