First turns of the season

With only a few hours to spare from other duties, today I was up very early to catch the sunrise on Cairn Gorm. This was my first ski of the season, and it was fabulous. It was minus 7C in Strathspey first thing, but the rapid skin uphill soon saw me warm up! The descent was fabulous, as good as any day I've had on Cairngorm, and in November too! Really good snow off-piste, and great to get the ski-legs back in action.

Best spell of the winter?

After last year's disappointingly wet, mild and windy winter, this winter has been really making up for it. At the moment we're enjoying a lengthy spell of settled, calm, sunny conditions in the Scottish Highlands. By this stage in the winter the sun is starting to have some real strength, meaning clear nights, very cold frosty starts, followed by warm afternoon sunshine. Lovely! Glen Affric is definitely one of the most beautiful glens in the Highlands, and I have had many special days there. However, I have never managed to ski up any of the hills there; yesterday I put that right with a great, short tour around Toll Creagach, one of the Affric Munros. A late start due to other commitments for once didn't work against us, as this gave time for the sun to break through the morning mists and soften the top layer of the snow, giving brilliant, easy skiing down long open slopes. The views north across Mullardoch and beyond were also incredible.Very windy and cold right on the summit, but hot and sunny down in the glen. A sun-cream day!

Looking up Gleann nam Fiadh to Tom a Choinich

Great skinning conditions

Sun starting to soften the snow

View N from the summit

The reward: fast, easy open skiing on great Spring snow.

Ski touring Strathfarrar

We've had a great start to winter this season, with lots of snow. I was keen to make the most of the low snowline today and get out on the skis. We plumped for the shapely hill of Beinn a' Bha'ach Ard. This hill lies at the foot of Strathfarrar, in the NW Highlands. We were able to put skins on from the road and had a lovely day weaving our way round the hills. There was the usual mix of Scottish snow conditions, some great, some not (!). The Scottish Avalanche Information Service started issuing forecasts as of today so make sure to include it in your planning process.

Candian Ski-mountaineering

As promised here is a home video from the footage of our trip to the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada during April and May. Bringing back good memories looking at it now, but there was a lot of pain and bushwhacking at the time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS42L-BSi0s&feature=youtu.be

Adventure with a capital 'A' !

Canada was everything I was expecting and more. Huge ice-fields, complicated crevassed terrain, changeable weather plus the worst bushwhack imaginable (think crawling under dense thickets whilst carrying enormous bags and skis). I'll write up the trip in a bit more detail when I've had the chance to draw breath but here's a flavour......in the meantime take a look at the pictures on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/OnHighHills

Off to Canada........

Well, it's finally here. Off to the airport today to begin the journey to Canada and our expedition to the Homathko Icefield. The last few days have been spent packing, tinkering and checking kit and it's food to finally be heading out of the door! 

 I will be away for 3 weeks so will be out of phone contact during that time. However, emails to On High Hills will still be answered if you're wanting to get in touch to book days out on the hill. You can follow our progress at http://www.alpineskiclub.org.uk/about-us/news

Expedition preparation

Only 10 days to go until I leave for a ski-mountaineering expedition to British Columbia, Canada. We will spend 14+ days traversing and exploring the Homathko Icefield, a remote glaciated wilderness in the wild Coast Mountains. Remarkable how many little things there are to organise for such a trip, most of the house looks like this just now

These mountains are absolutely fantastic, we had a wonderful previous trip there in 2013:

Getting really excited now!  Thanks to the Alpine Ski Club (www.alpineskiclub.org.uk) for supporting this trip for its members.

Northern Corries tour

A short tour around the N Corries and into Lurcher's gully today. Stronger winds than forecast, with lots of snow movement going on, lots of wind slab and wind blown powder, definitely glad to be on easy angled slopes today.  A new variation on the raised footprints theme.....dog prints today! Plenty of folk out on the hill, either skiing, walking or learning winter skills.  Lots to go at at all levels at the moment, the snow shows no sign of leaving us just yet. The hills and forests look so beautiful just now....proper winter. Long may it continue!

Ben Wyvis ski-touring

Fantastic day out ski touring on Ben Wyvis today. The full gamut of Scottish conditions, from heather survival skiing to perfect untracked powder, from glorious sunshine and views to whipping winds and Baltic temperatures. Brilliant! From the Garve road there doesn't look to be too much snow, but we had a hunch that with the prevailing winds of late that a good amount would have collected in the back bowls, and this it proved. Plenty of folk on the hill, but mostly hill-walking rather than skiing.

There is also a video from today available here

https://www.facebook.com/pages/On-High-Hills/805745176138694?ref=tn_tnmn