To be honest I've done a lot of Scottish skiing this winter, more than probably the last 2 winters already. It's a strange situation with Covid, restricted travel, and not allowed to see people etc, but I feel quite lucky that I have a job at least. During this lockdown (number 2) we are told to 'stay at home', but legally I can travel anywhere within my local authority area (I can actually go 5 miles out of it) for exercise, which is the whole of the Highlands. It's a strange message and when I look on social media I now notice lots of outdoor folk are either not going out (and saying this, making a point of posting old photo's), going locally, and making sure they type on every line of their post that their adventure 'was local' (most), or some are travelling more widely (very few).
So this winter just happens to be a one in 10 years winter, weeks and weeks of snow and sub zero weather - brilliant. I'm trying to ski as much as possible always conscious that a thaw must come soon.
Loz is (almost) cursing this winter. He's a prolific and very good winter climber, but the sheer amount of snow with very little freeze thaw has meant winter climbing has been limited. We have had 2 aborted trips to try and winter climb lately, and the 2nd was yesterday. We'd planned well, picking low ice climbing, knowing that it's been cold enough to form. We checked the wind direction that the snow was due to arrive on, so in theory yesterdays climb should have been clear, blasted by the wind.
We headed to Strathconnon and started following some skiers ahead on a snowy track. It was hard work, post holing in deep snow. I had been kind to Loz, not going on my ski's as he hasn't got any ski boots at the moment and with lockdown is struggling to get some.
After a few hours we got to within sight of the crag sitting above a small but beautiful Caledonian Pine Forest. The snow was 1-2 feet deep, but the main problem was that the crag, and ice was absolutely plastered in snow! After considering the situation we binned it and headed home, later to find out that the skiers had logged the route but commented on UKC how poor it was with rotten ice and too much snow to clear/wade through.
But with a day off I decided I would go back to the same area for a ski tour, which made so much more sense than trying to wade to a climb. I loaded up and headed owt!
Even from the start easily skinning up the buried track was great and so much easier than yesterday. I got to the col and took in the seemingly endless tundra before me before ripping off the skins and gliding down to the forest. The powder in here was surreal! between .5 and 1m deep. Its a small forest with a track through it (buried under snow), lots of deer were sheltering in the forest as I slid through. Near the bottom I noticed that yesterdays skier/climbers had headed up to the crag, so I stuck the skins on and headed up following their tracks to look at the crag in more detail.
Once I headed down again it was surreal tree skiing! I wish I'd set up the camera, but I was too excited to do this! The transitions in meter deep soft snow were annoying enough without adding extra ones in to retrieve the camera!
I popped out of the forest into Glen Orrin and sat on an old pine and had lunch looking at the Strathfarrar Munro's ahead.
From here I followed the River Orrin towards the Loch/dam. It felt wild rolling country as I moved on mile after mile. My plan was to then get to a shooting bothy I'd seen on the map before turning left and going over a low hill to get back to my outward track.
I'd spent quite a while taking pictures and when I looked at the time and it was 3pm I knew I needed to hustle! The low angle ridge seemed to go on for a while, but eventually I hit the top and the amazing 360 degree views. I'd picked a low tour for the better snow (more wind affected higher up), and low angle as the avalanche risk is quite high at present on certain aspects.
From this minor top to my return track was an absolute joy, silky smooth fresh snow on a hard base and no-one had skied anywhere near this slope! Fresh tracks!
The way out was uneventful thankfully (there's a bit of a toboggan section) and I took off the ski's at the farm walking back to the van on the road tired but smiling. As I sat on the back of the van changing boots it started to gently snow. I think the perfect Highland ski day. Amazing
