Thursday, 6 February 2025

A Look At The March Issue Of The Great Outdoors

The March issue of The Great Outdoors features stories by women hikers and adventurers in celebration  of International Women's Day on March 8th. Five inspirational mountain-loving women - Sarah Jane Douglas, Fiona Russell, Hazel Strachan, Mary-Ann Ochota, and Renee MacGregor - share their stories and give advice to upcoming female hillwalkers; Elise Wortley climbs Mt Blanc in clothing replicating that worn by Henrietta d'Angeville on the first unaided female ascent in 1838; Lorraine McCall describes her continuous round of the Grahams, the first time this has been done; and Lydia Paleschi hikes the Helambu Trek in Nepal. 

The issue opens with a stunning photograph of a camp above a 100-metre waterfall on Disko Island, Greenland, by Rachel Murray. In shorter pieces Creator of the Month is graphic designer Tessa Simpson, Ken Daykin reviews The Cairngorms and North-East Scotland by Iain Young, Anne Butler, and Heather Morning, Jim Perrin looks at Pen Llithrig Y Wrach in Eryri in his Mountain Portrait, and there's the final Coastscript column from Emma Schroeder in which she looks back at the high points of her epic walk. A longer feature covers the the 2025 Reader Awards, with all the winners and runner-ups described.  

In the Skills section Hanna Lindon explores the different ways of meeting like-minded hill folk. In the Gear pages Lara Dunn and Peter Macfarlane each test four base layer tops and four insulated jackets, Kirsty Pallas reviews the Coros Vertix 25 watch, and David Lintern tests the Highlander Munro V2 Jacket. 

Wild Walks covers ten stile-free routes, six in England and four in Wales. Three of the English ones are in the Lake District where Ian Battersby goes over High Pike in the Caldbeck Fells, James Forrest ascends Latrigg from Keswick, and Vivienne Crow climbs Angletarn Pikes and Beda Fell. Over in the Yorkshire Dales Ian Battersby pops up again, climbing Great Pinseat from Arkengarthdale. Much further south Fiona Barltrop walks over Old Winchester Hill and Beacon Hill on the South Downs and Roger Butler goes up Hunter's Tor and Easdon Tor on Dartmoor. In Wales Roger climbs Yr Aran in Eryri/Snowdonia, Andrew Galloway visits Llantysilio Mountain in Denbighshire, and Phillipa Cherryson has a circular walk over Pen Y Fan and Cribyn in Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons and goes up Yr Eifl on the Llyn Peninsula.

  

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Thoughts of Border Crossings, Nature, and the Dangers of the Trump/Musk Axis

Sign at the international border 

The USA appears to have gone mad, or at least its rulers Trump and Musk have. Aside from everything else (and there’s a great deal of that) they seem to have decided that insulting, bullying, and threatening long-time allies is the way to advance the USA’s interests (or at least their own interest’s, I’m not sure either of them really cares about the US). Trump seems to regard every country as a rival to be defeated or taken over. His insistence that Canada should become the 51st state of the USA is astounding. Why ever would Canada want to do that? Give up its independence, its health care system, its gun control, and much more?

Worrying about what the USA will do next is something many of us are doing at present. Trump’s plans threaten to destabilise the whole world. Particularly worrying is his ending action on climate change and his plan to use more oil and coal. This will affect us all.

I feel for the people of the USA who will suffer greatly if Trump gets his way. I have friends and relatives there. I am concerned for them. I’m also concerned for the country as a whole, for its nature and wild places. Trump wants to get rid of environmental regulations and drill and mine and log anywhere it might make money.

Dwelling on these issues, which seem to dominate life at present, I’ve been thinking of all my trips to the USA and Canada and how wonderful they’ve been and how friendly the people of both countries have been.


I’ve spent around three years of my life in the USA on walks and ski tours and have many favourite places - the High Sierra, the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Glacier Peak Wilderness, Death Valley, and many more. Some of the most glorious and powerful experiences of my life have been when hiking the country’s wonderful long-distance trails. It would be heartbreaking to see anything happen to the USA’s wild places.


Canada is also dear to me. I’ve spent less time there, maybe a year in total, but I’ve had similar experiences walking the length of the Canadian Rockies and south to north through the Yukon Territory.

Borders between countries are arbitrary lines on the map. The easier it is to cross them the better the relations between the countries. I’ve crossed many on long walks. In the Alps I’ve gone from France to Switzerland and back, and France to Italy and back. In Scandinavia I’ve crossed the borders between Norway, Sweden and Finland many times and twice visited the Three Country Cairn where you can go between each country by walking round it.

The longest international border in the world is between Canada and the USA with a length of 8,891 km (5,525 mi), of which 6,416 km (3,987 mi) is between Canada and the lower 48 states, and 2,475 km (1,538 mi) between Canada and Alaska. Much of it is in wilderness and marked by over 8000 monuments. No wall, no fence, no barrier. Just a strip cleared in the forest.

Monument 78 in the rain

During my long walks I crossed the US/Canada border three times and visited it another two times to start walks in each country.  The first occasion was when I crossed the border into Canada at Monument 78 on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was pouring with rain and I never got a photograph of myself there, something I’ve always regretted.

At the start of the Continental Divide Trail

Goat Haunt on the border in Waterton-Glacier International Park is a place I’ve walked to three times though I only crossed the border on one of them. That was on the Continental Divide Trail which I began in Canada, walking alongside Upper Waterton Lake to the border and then continuing south to Mexico.

At the start of my Canadian Rockies walk

Three years later I walked to Goat Haunt beside the lake again, then turned round and headed back as this was the start of my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies.

My third visit was after another twenty-two years on the Pacific Northwest Trail. Tightened security after the 911 terrorist atrocity meant I couldn’t legally walk into the US from Canada at Goat Haunt anymore so I arrived from the east. On that occasion I didn’t take a photo of myself by the monument but I did take the photograph of the sign at the top of this post..

At the Chilkoot Pass on the Alaska/British Columbia border

In between the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest Trail walks I’d crossed the border again, this time between Alaska and Canada on the Chilkoot Trail at the start of my walk through the Yukon Territory.

That there should be friction between the USA and Canada is very sad. Trump is responsible for this. His actions are deplorable and potentially disastrous. The Waterton-Glacier Peace Park was established in 1932 “not just to promote peace and goodwill between nations, but also to underscore the international nature of wilderness and the co-operation required in its protection”. Those aims are even more important today.

On the USA/Mexico border at the start of the Arizona Trail

Of course it’s not just Canada Trump is having a go at. In time it could be virtually the whole world. As well as Canada with allies he’s started with Mexico, Panama and Greenland. I’ve never been to the first two, though I have stood at the border looking in to Mexico three times, but I have been to Greenland once, leading a ski tour. Trump wants to buy Greenland from Denmark. The arrogance is astounding. He’s treating Greenland as if it’s a product in a shop, not a country with a population who might like some say in the matter.

A Greenland landscape

How all this will work out I have no more idea than anyone else. It feels a dangerous time, for people and nature. All I can do is support those trying to achieve the best they can and oppose those who would destroy. Little though there is that I can achieve myself staying silent feels irresponsible. Perhaps if enough of us speak out there can be change for the better. 

Saturday, 1 February 2025

Thursday, 30 January 2025

Damp in the Forest: First Camp of the Year

Tony Hobbs on the day walk 

Following Storm Eowyn’s high winds and snow the weather calmed down. Rather too much in fact as a thick, grey, wet cloud settled over the Cairngorms and refused to move for several days. I had my first camp of 2025 during this period, as Tony Hobbs had arranged a few weeks earlier to come up from down south for a few days out and couldn’t easily change his plans. A day earlier and Eowyn might have stopped him anyway.

View over Rothiemurchus Forest to the Lairig Ghru

Given that the forecast suggested it could be windy high up and due to a late start we decided to camp deep in the shelter of the forest and not push on uphill into the dark. An initial view of the great gash of the Lairig Ghru with snowy hills rising into the clouds either side didn’t make the heights seem very appealing either. The snow in the forest was soft and slushy and slowly thawing and it was a sloshy, boggy walk to our campsite.  

Forest camp

The night was quiet, the air still and damp. The overnight low was 2°C.  The forecast had changed – the next two days were now meant to be showery with thick cloud down on the hills. This turned out to be accurate, unfortunately. Rather than move location we decided we’d stay here for a second night and spend the day walking up the path towards the Lairig Ghru pass with the idea that if the clouds lifted a little we might go up the hills above the mouth of the pass, Creag a’ Chalamain and Castle Hill. At 787 and 728 metres respectively maybe they’d be below the cloud.

Carn Eilrig, 742 metres

They weren’t. The cloud base was around 500 metres, maybe 600 at times. The path into the Lairig Ghru was wet and increasingly snowy. There was a slow thaw. Drizzle and thin rain fell. The air was saturated. It wasn’t cold though. 6°C according to my thermometer. With no wind blowing walking soon made me warm. I’d set off in base layer, fleece, and windshirt. The middle layer soon came off. Hat and gloves never went on.

Forest, hills, snow, cloud

The forest was green and dripping, the pines magnificent. As we started to leave the trees behind the wild winter hills appeared, the snow bringing out the complex lines of moraines, stream gullies, and scree slopes. The high mountains were hidden in the clouds so this lower landscape stood out.

Tony near our high point

Eventually we decided to return down the path so we’d reach camp before dark. I remembered other occasions when I’d turned back on this approach to the Lairig Ghru in winter, both times due to savage weather, and camped in the forest. The first time, back in the 1990s, two of us had retreated in the face of a ferocious wind we could barely walk into, a wind that had ripped the foam pad off the back of my companion Chris Ainsworth’s pack. Amazingly we found it further down the path.

The crags of Creag an Leth-choin rise into the clouds

The second occasion was twelve years ago when I was making the Cairngorms In Winter film with Terry Abraham. The snow was deeper than today and the wind again ferocious and again we retreated to camp in the forest, though on that occasion the storm followed us into the woods. I wrote about the trip in this post.

Another hot drink on the way.

Today we weren’t escaping a storm, just sloshing back down the path in the drizzle to our comfortable camp. The rain meant we were soon ensconced in our tents. I wiled away the long hours of darkness (about fifteen at this time of year), making hot drinks, reading, writing my journal, listening to the slow spots of rain hitting the flysheet, and sleeping.

Is it still raining?

There was no change at dawn. Except that it was slightly warmer, speeding up the thaw. We packed up and walked out, pausing to give advice to a lost walker, one of the few people we met. We first saw him talking to a mountain biker. The cyclist having peddled off he then asked us for directions. On first sight I’d thought he was someone from the Rothiemuchus estate as he was dressed in ‘country’ clothing – brogues, knee-length socks, breeches, Barbour jacket, and carrying a traditional wooden walking stick. He had no pack and didn’t look like a typical walker. He told us he was a countryman from the Borders and didn’t know this area.

Lochan Deo on the walk out, still some ice.

He was out for a circular walk he’d been told would take him past the loch (I guess Loch Morlich) and then back to Coylumbridge. He didn’t have a map and was confused by the different path junctions, not all of them signposted. He was in fact on a path that would take him back to the road in almost a straight line but he didn’t feel confident to continue and decided to return the way he’d come, even though it was longer.

The day before we’d only seen one other person, a backpacker heading into the Lairig Ghru. This day we met a pair of walkers as well as the lost countryman and the mountain biker. Five people in total and we were on popular paths. I guess the weather had discouraged others.

Back in Aviemore we had lunch in the Explorers Café and watched the now heavier rain falling. It had been a quiet gentle first camping trip of the year. It was good to be out.

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

All Quiet Before Storm Eowyn

The summit of Meall a' Bhuachaille

The first named storm of 2025, Storm Eowyn (love the Tolkien reference!), is due to arrive late tomorrow with very strong winds, rain and snow. Of course we had a big storm early in January that brought masses of snow and bitter cold but apparently that wasn't stormy enough to have a name. 

Before Eowyn arrives I decided it was time for my first hill of the year, an old favourite, Meall a'Bhuachaille. A bit later than usual this year for a variety of boring but pressing reasons. The day was calm and cloudy as I set off through the forest to the Ryvoan Pass and Lochan Uaine. Occasional shafts of sunshine pierced the greyness and lit up strips of trees or hillside but mostly the light flattening shroud stayed in place. 

View from Ryvoan Bothy

Lochan Uaine was rich and green, living up to its name, the only ripples on the water coming from swimmers, canine and human. Smoke was pouring from the chimney at Ryvoan Bothy. There was almost a clearance to the east with sunlight on the side of Carn Bheadhair, the clouds almost lifting from the top, and patches of hazy blue sky. It didn't last and when I looked back from the lower path on Meall a' Bhuachaille the brightness had gone and the cloud was locked firmly on the summit.

Into the mist

Big black bags lined the long path up Meall a' Bhuachaille, bags full of rocks and gravel. The path, steep in places and well-used, is being repaired. As the trees thinned out I reached the mist and was soon enveloped. Soon damp too as it was quite wet.

The dark summit cairn appeared. I stopped for a drink and a snack. No need to shelter. There was no wind.  Chilly enough to don hat and jacket though, the temperature just 1C. There were skims of ice and tiny tendrils of frost on the stones. 

A brief view from the summit

Then a golden glow appeared out to the west as the setting sun cut briefly below the clouds. A shoulder of mountain appeared then vanished. it was a welcome touch of colour before I was off down to the woods, finishing the walk by headlamp. 

With this first hill the year feels like it has really begun. Now to see what Storm Eowyn brings.

Favourite Photos I Took In 2024

Sgor Gaoith, Cairngorms, March. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 135mm, ISO 100, 
                                                                      1/500 sec at f8.

Belatedly here are some of my favourites from the 4500 or so photos I took in 2024. Or at least those I like most at the moment! I’ve hummed and hawed about quite a few, putting them in, then taking them out. As I said last year it’s a pleasant if time-consuming task.  It's also a useful way of analysing my photography looking at themes and changes from past years, if any.

As always, I took many photos of camps, my favourites of which can be seen in this post. Several of them could have featured here. 

Stac na h-Iolaire, Cairngorms, January. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 48mm, ISO 100,  1/50 sec at f8. 

As it has been since I bought it in 2019 my most used lens by far is the Sony E 18-135mm. I did use the Sigma 18-50mm a fair bit though. The extra reach of the 18-135 makes a huge difference and if I only take one lens that’s it. However at F2.8 the Sigma is faster and so better for low light or throwing the background out of focus. It’s also smaller and lighter weight. I do like it very much. 

Foxglove, July. Sony a6600 + Sigma 18-50 lens at 50mm, ISO 100, 1/160 @ f2.8

Generally I carried just one camera body, my Sony a6700, though sometimes I took the a6600 as well.

Campfire at Amethyst Lakes, Canadian Rockies, 1988. Scan from Fujichrome 100 film with Sony a6700 + Sony E 30mm macro lens, ISO 100, 4 seconds at f8.

Having dabbled with film photography again a few years ago and realised why digital is such a relief I ended up spending more time in 2024 working on old Fuji film transparencies than on digital images. That was because I needed to scan over 100 of them for the new edition of my book High Summer about my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988. I spent many hours and days going through sleeves and boxes of slides selecting ones for the book and then photographing them on an old lightbox with my usually little-used Sony E 30mm macro lens.

Dawn on the Graham River, Canadian Rockies, 1988. Scan from Fujichrome 100 film with Sony a6700 +Sony E 30mm macro lens, ISO 100, 1/4 second at f8.

I always shoot raw files and much of my processing is now done in DxO PhotoLab. The latest version, PhotoLab 8, is the best yet. PhotoLab was wonderful for processing my photos of my old photos and getting the best out of them. 

Autumn woodland, October. Sony a6700 + Sigma 18-50mm lens at 28.7mm, ISO 400, 1/30 second at f8.

I like many of these images because of the complexity. I can see new details every time I look at them. 

Roe deer bucks facing off, May. Sony a6600 + Sony E 70-350mm lens at 350mm, ISO 400, 1/1600 seconds at f6.3. Cropped.

I'm not a wildlife photographer but I do take wildlife photographs when the opportunity is there. On this occasion I was at home looking out of the window when two roe deer bucks appeared in the field in front of the house and started fighting. I rushed upstairs, grabbed my camera and took a series of photos through my study window. This arguably the best one, though none of the heavily cropped images are technically very good. I like them because it was such an exciting event to witness. You can see the others and read the whole story here.

Dusk over Loch Poulary, Cape Wrath Trail, May. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm at 33mm, ISO 100, 1/100 seconds at f8.

Most of my photos were taken around home and in the Cairngorms. I did make two trips further west when I walked most of the Cape Wrath Trail. Whilst conditions weren't often ideal for photography I did take some images I'm pleased with.

The Stack of Glencoul, Loch Beag, & Eas a' Chual Aluinn (waterfall), Cape Wrath Trail, October. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 34mm, ISO 100, 1/200 second at f8.

Birch tree, August. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 43mm, ISO 100, 1/250 at f8.

Every year I take many photos of a birch tree in the field outside our house. The dramatic sky made this my 2024 favourite.

A squall sweeping across Strathspey, April. Sony a6600 + Sigma 18-50mm lens at 50mm, ISO 100, 1/640 second at f9.

Dramatic clouds feature in many of my favourite images of 2024. I do like them!

Clouds streaking over Cairn Toul in the Cairngorms, September. Sony a6700 + Sony E 10-20mm lens at 10mm, ISO 100, 1/320 second at f8.

Rain sweeping over Bod an Deamhain, Cairngorms, June. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 88mm, ISO 100, 1/160 seconds at f8.

Thicker clouds and rain can make for interesting skies too. The photos above and below show different aspects of this. Both were taken only a short distance apart though five months apart in time. 

View down the Lairig Ghru from Creag an Leth-choin, Cairngorms, November. Sony a6700 + Sigma 18-50mm lens at 18mm, ISO 100, 1/1000 seconds at f5.6

Cairn Gorm Weather Station, October. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm at 38mm, ISO 100, 1/320 seconds at f8

Structures on mountain tops other than summit cairns or trig points are not something I like or generally approve of but I must admit that the Weather Station on the summit of Cairn Gorm has become a favourite old friend, especially in winter conditions. On this occasion I was alone on the summit on a bitterly cold day when another walker arrived to gaze up at the frozen mast.

Sunset, Tom Mor, Cairngorms, December. Sony a6700 + Sony E 18-135mm lens at 30mm, ISO 800, 1/80 seconds at f8.

Another favourite structure is a huge cairn on a local hill Tom Mor that I can see from home. The view along Strathspey from there is superb but on this December trip it was the sunset that was glorious.


Friday, 17 January 2025

For those interested in cookpots for hiking! A new Fire Maple Petrel pot.

Fire Maple G2 on the left, Petrel G3 on the right.

Recently Fire Maple launched a new pot with a heat exchanger (HX) on the base called the Petrel G2. It’s bigger and wider than the original Petrel, now called the Petrel G3, with a 750ml rather than 600ml capacity. I received one in the post yesterday and on first look I like it a great deal.

The Petrels are, so far, unique amongst heat exchanger pots as they have slots in the base in which you can fit the pot supports of a stove with 120° between them. This brings the burner inside the heat exchanger and closer to the base of the stove, which increases wind resistance and makes the unit more stable. It’s also meant to reduce boil times and improve fuel efficiency though my tests with the G3 suggest there’s no significant difference with standard heat exchanger pots as long as a windshield is used with the latter.

G2 left, G3 right.

Last year I wrote a post about heat exchanger pots and why I was now using one year round (see here). In mild, calm weather they don’t make much difference. It’s when it’s cold and windy that they come into their own, especially when used with a stove with a regulated burner like the Soto Windmaster or the MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe.

As part of my testing I tried the two Fire Maple HX pots then available, the Petrel G3 and the 1-litre FMC-XK6, and preferred the latter, although it’s a little heavier, as it’s wider and so easier for stirring when simmering, with less chance of food at the bottom burning, and easier for eating from – my pot often doubles as a bowl.

From the left, FMC-XK6, Petrel G2, Petrel G3

Back in November when it was winter in the hills, unlike now (mid-January), I had a camp where I needed to melt snow for water. The FMC-XK6 proved excellent for this (see this video). I think the narrower, taller, smaller Petrel G3 would not have been so good.  The FMC doesn’t have slots in the base though and the handle and lid aren’t as easy to use as the ones on the G3. I’m hoping the Petrel G2, which is as wide as the FMC and has the same type of handle and lid as the G2, will prove as useful for snow melting. I just need winter to return to find out.

The G2 is slightly lighter than the FMC, 187g rather than 195g, and a bit heavier than the G3, which weighs 166g. That’s with lids. For some reason Fire Maple has decided to give the G2 a hefty lid weighing 46g. The FMC lid is 24g, the G3 28g. Without lids the G2 is only 2g heavier than the G3. Of course 20g or so difference is irrelevant for most people. Only dedicated ultralighters will change the G2 lid for a lighter one. I just wonder why Fire Maple have put such a lid on a pot they’re promoting as ultralight. Other than weight it's similar to the G3 lid with a big rubber knob that makes it easy to lift off and made of transparent Tritan plastic.

The G2 measures 127.5 x 126 x 147.5mm with the handle folded over the lid. The pot itself has a height of 100mm and a diameter of 120mm. A 234g gas canister will fit inside but there isn't room for a stove as well.

The design of the G2 is similar to the G3 with the same snap-in-place folding handle that holds the lid on when closed. The G2 has a small pour spout, unlike the G3, and a single drain/steam hole in the lid rather than three slots. Of course steam can also escape at the spout, which isn't fully covered by the lid. There's only one volume mark, max 0.75L on the inside. The G3 and the FMC have incremental marks, which are useful. I wish Fire Maple had put these on the G2.

I’ve attached the Soto Windmaster Triflex and the *MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe to the G2 and both fit OK.  The combination is slightly more stable with the PRD as the supports fill the slots on the base. The shorter Triflex ones don’t and that means there’s a slight wobble and it’s harder to centre the pot on the stove. In practice this probably makes no significant difference. I’ll find out.

*A note on the MSR PRD and the Petrel pots. There are videos and online reviews that say it won’t fit the G3 and others that say it will. I suspect this is down to manufacturing tolerances with the pot. My PRD won’t quite fit the G3 without the legs being closed slightly and then it’s awkward – I wouldn’t want to use the combination in the field. However it fits the G2 fine.

Monday, 13 January 2025

MSR Switch Stove System review for The Great Outdoors


MSR has an interesting and unusual new stove system that has a pot with a rounded base. After testing it extensively last autumn I've reviewed it for The Great Outdoors here



Sunday, 12 January 2025

A Look At The February Issue Of The Great Outdoors

 
The February issue of The Great Outdoors is available now. In fact it has been for a while so my look inside is a little late. Apologies! Time is flying by.

Anyway, my contribution to this issue is a review of MSR's interesting new Switch Stove System.

Also in the Gear pages Alex Roddie and Kirsty Pallas review four pairs of hiking trousers each and Kirsty Pallas and James Roddie review four pairs of winter boots each. 

There's also a guide to layering for keeping warm on the hills from Mountaineering Scotland's Helen Gestwicki and Ross Cadie and a quiz on how to avoid hypothermia.

The magazine opens with a splendid photo of Ben Nevis in winter by David Lintern. 

The main theme of the issue is life-changing adventures with four authors recalling key moments. In the Andes climber and writer Anna Fleming meets the pioneering Indigenous Cholita Climbers of Bolivia. The cover of the issue is a great photo by Anna of the Cholita women in the mountains in their colourful clothing.

Back in Britain two story-walks by Corinne Fowler from her book Our Island Stories show how our colonial past is written into the rural modern-day. Francesca Donovan reviews the book elsewhere in the magazine.

Going abroad again Ross Brannigan describes his honeymoon spent fastpacking the Lycian Way in Turkiye.

In shorter pieces Creator of the Month is Munroist David Solomon, Andy Wasley writes about grey herons, and there's a look at recent problems in the John Muir Trust. Jim Perrin's Mountain Portrait is the Ridge of the Red Cairns (Nantlle Ridge). In recollections from her walk round the coast of Britain Emma Schroeder remembers reaching new horizons every day.

Wild Walks covers short walks for short winter days from the Highlands to Dartmoor. James Roddie climbs A' Chailleach in the Monadhliath while Alex Roddie tackles Ben Vrackie in Perthshire and the Tarmachan Ridge in the Southern Highlands. In the Lake District Vivienne Crow goes up Hay Stacks and James Forrest up Helm Crag. Ian Battersby has a snowy walk over Roseberry Topping and Highcliff Nab on the North York Moors and encounters more snow on Great Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales. In the Peak District Andrew Galloway climbs Black Hill. Over in Wales Fiona Barltrop visits Fan Frynch in Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons. Finally Tim Gent walks over White Tor on Dartmoor.


Saturday, 11 January 2025

A Local Ski Tour

View over the mist to the Cairngorms

With the snow lying deep all around I’ve been ski touring in the local area. There’s no need to go further afield and it seems sensible to make the best of these conditions while they last.

In the mist

My longest ski tour took me from the garden gate through woods and onto the low moorland at the head of our little side glen. Not high up and not very far but the snow made it wild and beautiful, enhanced by skiing out of thick mist into sunshine.

Hot in the woods!

The hardest skiing was at the start when I crossed a very rough field and went through equally rough woods. As the temperature was well below freezing I set off in hat, gloves, and fleece plus a Paramo smock. After ten minutes off came hat, gloves and fleece and I opened all the vents on the smock as I was overheating from the effort of skiing in the deep soft snow and over many tussocks.

In the woods the terrain was even tougher. I had to take a circuitous route round many fallen trees and negotiate branches and stumps hidden under the snow. Skis weren’t ideal for this. Snowshoes would have been better.

Silent and frozen

The woods were frozen and silent. Whenever I paused I could hear nothing. There were many roe deer tracks in the snow. A line of fox prints. The marks of a squirrel. But nothing moved. No rustle in the undergrowth, no bird calls.

Once I came out of the trees and joined an estate track the skis came into their own. The snow was packed harder here, especially where there were some tractor tracks, and other skiers had been along the first section. I could kick and glide on the flat and coast down the few gentle downhills.

The air was colder put in the open and I wasn’t working as hard so back on went the hat and gloves and I closed the vents on the smock. Staying comfortable – not too hot, not too cold – is important.

Leaving the mist

As I skied along the track hazy hills and trees began to appear. I was slowly climbing out of the mist. The moon hung high in the sky. Soon I could look back down at the mist-filled glen. The Cromdale Hills started to appear and then the more distant Cairngorms, lit gold by the low sun.

View over the mist to the Cromdale Hills

At the top of the track I stopped for a hot drink and a snack. Almost instantly I felt chilly and quickly donned my down jacket. Although only a half-day trip from home I had brought my usual winter hiking gear, apart from ice axe and crampons which I knew I wouldn’t need.

A welcome rest

Finding a comfortable seat with my back against a rock I decided to make a little video about the ski tour and set up my tripod and camera. As I switched on record two jets roared overhead, the first sounds other than the swish of my skis. They couldn’t have timed it better. Eventually the jets faded away and I continued the video. I’ll post it soon.

Heading back into the mist

The temperature was -5°C when I decided to pack up and head down the track. Swishing along my ski tracks was easy and delightful. A wren bobbed in a bush, a flock of fieldfares flapped overhead, the only wildlife I saw all day. Soon I was back in the mist.

At the track end I decided to return home via the road rather than back through the woods as it would be easier. The single-track road had been ploughed and gritted several days ago but not since and I was able to ski along it much of the way. Then it was up our track through the woods to a warm fire and hot chocolate.