This weekend I got my first taste of Scottish Ski Touring with a two day tour in the Cairngorms. We started at the Glen Shee Ski area and skinned up besides the lifts then headed off up to Meall Odhar and to Glas Maol in heavy mist. We got a bit lost and when it cleared briefly, we realised we have taken the worst line up to the summit of Glas Maol possible. After that, the rest of the first day was spent alternating between skiing on compass bearings and having brilliant views of the Cairngorms. We did a further 3 Monro’s Cairn of Claise, Tolmount and Carn an t-Sagairt Mor with some nice runs in-between. On the final run down to the Callater Stables Bothy at the end of the day we managed to link snow patches all the way to the bothy door.
After a good nights sleep and some stunning views in the morning from the bothy, we headed up Carn an Tuirc. The whole morning was spent navigating in zero visibility which was good practice and it was interesting to note how difficult it is to judge distance while on ski’s. We eventually found the summit and had an enjoyable ski all the way down to the road on ever more sparse patches of snow, followed by a slog back up to the ski centre where the car was parked.
Andrew,
First up, cheers for the video – I’ve posted a link to it on our Facebook page, hope you don’t mind.
Second, I completely agree about the national park making a bit of a mess of the naming of the area, I suppose they thought that “Eastern Grampians National Park” was a bit of a mouthful.
Thanks,
Sam – Facewest
Looks like a nice week-end, with plenty of snowcover – but typical Scottish weather! I was up there too, and further North on Ben Wyvis, with my son, and the snow was disappearing fast. See video here:
I’m displaying an array of kit from Facewest – skins, bindings, trousers, rucsac at least (I do like that Ortovox rucsac).
Just a thought: Where you were wouldn’t normally be called the Cairngorms – they’re NW of Braemar. Glenshee is probably good. It’s confusing these days because the Cairngorms National Park covers an area much larger than the Cairngorms.