Aviemore Adventure Festival weekend

I got involved in helping out with the Aviemore Adventure Festival (AAF) some time back. I had a very small role helping Paul sort out guest speaker arrangements. It was a really interesting experience, and gave me an insight into the mammoth task it must have been to arrange the whole festival (well done Paul)!

Exciting...

Cedar meeting his biggest fans...

Mo and Jen trying to keep out of trouble!

The weekend came round quickly and it ended up that about 12 people I know were heading to the festival from various places near and far.... hmm would I manage to catch up with them all..!?

Cedar about to start his 7 hr talk...

My first job of the weekend was to pick up Justine Curgenven a well known kayaker from Inverness airport on Saturday and safely deliver her to Aviemore for the festival. It was great fun meeting her and hearing a little about her adventurous life.

I just love this image

I then quickly caught up with Jen at Cairngorm mt, where other friends (team 1 - Loz/Shaw/Kelly) were sampling the slushy skiing and team 2 - Abi/Gemma/Judith were walking somewhere!

the motley crew

After a quick bite to eat with everyone I had to rush to get to the festival venue and help get ready for the weekends headliner - the American climber and film maker Cedar Wright.

zoom shot of Papa Shaw

It was a whole lot of fun catching him before his set and then taking promo pictures during his talk. He is crazy fun, the venue was packed and I think it went down a storm (and I got some good shots).

After Cedar's set we all headed to the Old Bridge Inn for the festivals Saturday night party. The pub was packed, and the blue grass band were fantastic. It was a late night, but well worth it, I think we left the OBI at 2am.. A great day.

Judith testing her new stick on mud guard

On the Sunday after a lie in I got to catch up with friends and 7 of us headed out mt biking in the forest. Great fun messing about in the woods. We did a 30 km loop taking in Loch an Eilein, the amazing single track of the Lairgi Ghru and Loch Morlich. Sticky toffee pudding at Karn House (FRCC hut) was the perfect ending to a great weekend. Lets hope I'm allowed back to help with next years festival....

You meet scary people in the forests

Decisions, decisions.....

After working on Saturday I was eagerly looking online to find the best conditions for Sunday.... It looked like West was best with more snow at Nevis Range. Torn between getting up early and heading out west or risking East.. what to do...

old ski toe (still going!)

I ended up having a lie in, getting a leisurely breakfast, nice fresh coffee, helping our neighbours unload some logs... still I couldn't decide. But I left it so late that really my only option was to stick to the East, so I headed to the Cairngorms at 11am, with a promising forecast for after lunch. It was a bit of a gamble as Nevis had been blue skies since 8am, and Cairngorm looked clagged in on the web cams....

on top of Cairngorm 

Arriving at Cairngorm I again changed my plans from touring up Lurchers Gully (looked lean to get to it/a walk) to getting a half day piste ticket. The gamble payed off, blue skies all afternoon, virtually no wind, and dreamy fresh snow - well for Scotland ;-).

Love this, freshly groomed, empty, closed piste

Fantastic skiing, some fresh over a reasonable base, with lots of fresh snow on the side country at the top ptarmigan bowl. Just fantastic.

Which way?!

I had my skins and touring kit in my pack, but the skiing was so much fun I just kept lapping the pistes. It was pretty quiet too. I timed it so that when the lifts closed at 4.30pm I was high on the mt so I then skinned up to the top of Cairngorm, with only a couple of climbers up there finishing their day's climb. It was serene the area starting to quieten down.

Need to pick my way down now..

I had a quick spin off the back of the mountain finding a powder field before reluctantly turning for home, heading back to the top of the resort and hitting the empty freshly pisted runs as the sun went down. A magical day I didn't want to ever end.