T
FOR FINDING SCOTTISH SKI HEAVEN
Be as flexible as you can. If you must pin a week: late February or early March.
Don’t book accommodation. Or book somewhere central.
The weather passes rapidly over Scotland. Don’t assume just because just because conditons are poor in one place it’ll be same elsewhere. If it’s not good at Glencoe or the Nevis range, for example, check out conditions at one of the other main resorts: Cairngorm, Lecht and Glenshee.
Check the avalanche forecast on
www.sais.com
Check the Mountain Weather Information System at
www.mwis.com.
Don’t rely on reports any further than 2-3 days ahead
Buy Kenny Biggin’s off-piste guidebooks: ‘The Nevis Range and Ben Nevis’ and ‘Glencoe’ from
www.bmcshop.co.uk
Join the British Backcountry page on Facebook. It’s a hub for sharing photos, condition reports and general knowledge.
Scottish conditions can also be ideal for long, mellow ski tours. Blair
Aitken, founder of increasingly popular Facebook page British Backcountry, spent ten years ski coaching in the Alps before moving back to Scotland. He points out, “I was often frustrated when play was stopped at midday in the Alps due to rising temperatures. Usually the snow remains unchanged in Scotland and sport can carry on well into the evening.” Play doesn’t even have to stop at the end of the season. After surviving
cancer in 2009, Helen Rennie set herself the challenge of skiing Scottish snow every month. She’s now achieved that for the past 95. How? Long-lasting snow patches, the closest thing we have to glaciers, are a niche Scottish sub- culture. There has been interest in them for centuries: a patch on Braeriach called the Sphinx has only disappeared six times in the last 300 years.
WHEN IT’S BAD
“I’ve skied in farflung places, but I’m still most enchanted by Scotland,” begins Doug. But I’ve heard enough about the good days. I know they are very, very good. Now I want to hear about the epics, the bad days, the white-outs. Something about the contrast and tension here seems highly addictive. “What’s not to like about Scottish skiing?” I probe. “Oh, rain,” says Doug, glumly. “And mud. Heather. Wind. Sausage rolls.” Myrtle explains the character-building benefits of the terrain to me: “I can ski anywhere because I got myself to ski at Glencoe where everything is frightful. If you can ski there, down this sheet ice, down everything that goes wrong with skiing, you can ski anywhere.”
It’s a good point. Skiing in varied conditions vastly improves technique. 34 | CLIMB. WALK. JOIN.
“SKIING A LINE THAT YOU KNOW REALLY WELL, ALMOST BY BRAILLE IN BAD WEATHER; THERE’S SOMETHING WONDERFUL ABOUT THAT”
But you don’t usually fall in love in order to improve yourself (although this can be a handy by-product!), so why are growing numbers of Brits getting crazy about Scottish skiing? Rob, for example, tells me that Scottish skiing is so demanding that, “You need a flexible working pattern and little other life commitments to make it work”, and he isn’t the only one building his life around the British backcountry. Kenny obsessively watches the weather and gets out in the prime windows “After it’s snowed and before it melts or rains.’ Blair describes one of these Scottish weather snatches: “Last winter I skied Scald Law in the Pentland Hills back to the A702 in my suit trousers and shirt, after noticing on the way to work how good it looked. An hour after I left, it was apparently turning green again!” And Jamie Kunka, who makes artisan Scottish skis, tells me that when bad weather lifts, even momentarily revealing a stunning Highland backdrop, he is left “in a state of euphoria”. Pete goes one step further: even managing to find euphoria in the white-outs themselves, arguing that for generations, Highlanders have talked about connection to the land, and skiing is a way to feel that. “Skiing a line that you know really well, almost by braille in bad weather; there’s something wonderful about that.” I dig a little. I know he’s very loyal but Scottish skiing can’t be perfect, right? “If Scottish skiing was a sentient being,” he admits, “I guess he or she isn’t very nice to us very often!” “Oh!” I finally get it. “Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen?” “There might be an element of that!”
R Scottish heaven: Diagonal Gully in the Cairngorms.
FIVE TIPS:
S
K
C
I
S E
O
A
S
S
O
S
N
T
I
H
PHOTO: HAMISH FROST.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
