Go Mountain Goats

We've had a few weeks of reasonable snow, followed by the devastating thaw on Sunday. On 16th January myself and Suzy decided to head up into the Mamores. From the forecast it looked like Lochaber could be a better bet than the Cairngorms, although the opposite was true in the end and the cloud came in early. The Mamores isn't really an obvious choice for ski touring, excepting spring skiing the bowls off Sgurr a Mhaim and a few others, as it's pretty rocky and scree topped, with a fair few narrow ridges. I have always wanted to head up there on skis however as the idea of travelling on skis along the ridge traverse appeals to me. There are also some pretty remote slopes which look like they would be amazing to ski in the right conditions. Also with an eye on the Tranter round, it was worth a reccy. We headed up from Achriabhach onto the slopes of Mullach nan Coirean. Getting the skis on it was straightforward to start with, but then as it got more rocky it became mor...

This weekend I had a couple of good days out. Although the weather wasn't great it was brilliant to see the hills looking much whiter. On Sunday I skied in the Cairngorms with James W. It was fairly windy with clag and a predicted wee window of clearer weather around noon. We managed to coincide this clearing with getting to The Saddle between Cairngorm and Bynack Mor, for great views of a snowy Shelterstone and a mostly frozen Loch Avon. https://www.strava.com/activities/468109538 The ski down to The Saddle was actually pretty rocky and scoured, but at least it was a safe slope - with this much fresh snow around we were thinking carefully about which aspects to ski, especially when visibility wasn't great either. Going up Bynack Mor was rocky initially but skin-able and then the snow improved. We skied down Allt a Choire Dhuibh with some comedy snow topped heather skiing down into Strath Nethy, then back up and over west to the Ciste car park, with a few minor bu...

After some more wet and windy mild weather we did finally get some snow, and pictures of the snow conditions looked great at the Lecht on the 27th Dec. I missed the chance to get out as I was on a cyclocross mission with Gary Mac - linking Glen Creran to Glencoe via a route I've wanted to do for a while. https://www.strava.com/activities/457309432 Unfortunately the mega thaw was set to come in on race day for the Lecht 2090 Skimo race - the first of the 2015/16 season. And thaw it certainly did. Arriving at the Lecht there were two immediately obvious issues - a) there really wasn't very much snow and b) it was really very windy. Despite these fairly major issues Di and the Skimo Scotland team battled through Plan A, B and C to come up with a race course. https://www.strava.com/activities/458215985 All pictures: Mr Drew Photography Around 29 racers set off on the muddy soggy bootpack across towards the Buzzard tow, then skis on and up a short and steep climb...

Winter is finally here after a protracted mild and wet spell. I am really excited this winter to get out on long mountain missions on the skis and on foot. Having spent a few years dabbling in ski mountaineering racing, at home and in Europe, I want to see how using this very light and speedy 'Skimo' kit can transfer to 'light and fast' ski mountaineering objectives in the Scottish mountains. I could write at length about different types of ski touring / ski mountaineering kit and the pros and cons of different approaches. I have toured in Scotland on over 2m long nordic free heel skinny skis as well as heavy telemark setups. I'm not going to go into this right now, except to state that 'Skimo' kit is extremely light and functional for race 'transitions' (from uphill to downhill mode) and has been used for some simply mind blowing descents and tours in the Alps and elsewhere. A GB Team consisting of Ben Bardsley, Jon Morgan, Ben Tibbetts and Mi...