Autumn Colours
October 30, 2007 on 9:43 am | In Snowboarding | No Comments
The SNP conference were lucky to enjoy one of the most beautiful autumn days of the season in Aviemore this Sunday. They did have a mixed bag though, as Saturday was typically wet and windy. Sunday, however, was a lovely blustery day with a lot of sunny spells which brought out the best of the autumn colours in the landscape. Craigellachie, the hill behind Aviemore, shone with the yellows and oranges of the turning birch trees, which contrasted amazingly with the sapphire blue of the sky. The gloden yellow of the ripe grain in the fields also added to the patchwork quilt effect in the landscape and gave the phesants a good place to hide, until they were disturbed like the one in the picture.
One of my favourite places to go walking in autumn is on Ord Ban at the back of Loch an Eilan. This hill is also covered in many coloured birch trees. These are well mixed in between the pines and rowans making for a truly stunning aray of autumn colours. The view from the top of Ord Ban gives you a great line of sight up towards the Larig Ghru and the Cairngorm Mountain on one side and down towards Inshriach in the other direction. Loch an Eilan is right below you, like a gem set between the mountains. There are some lovely little crags at the top of the hill on the Loch an Eilan side where you can sit and watch the world go by and admire the scenery, which is exactly what I did.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Highland girls in the fairy glen
October 23, 2007 on 11:17 am | In Snowboarding | No Comments
It is the time of year when most European snowboard pros head to the European glaciers to get in some pre season training. The glacier of choice for this seasons autumn training is Saas Fee in Switzerland. Saas Fee literally means glen of the fairies in Swiss German. It is a beautiful alpine village high in the swiss alps and it is easy to see why it would be associated with otherworldy beings as it really is an enchanted place. At this time of year the trees are all turning and the white of the first snow falls me akes a stark contrast to the burnt oranges and yellows of the autumnal trees.
I headed to Saas Fee with the junior European Roxy Team as their coach for the week. There were 10 girls from the age of 13 to 16, from all over Europe, France, Switzerland, The UK, Norway and Holland. It is the first time that Roxy has ran a training camp for the junior girls and they were very, very excited to be there. This great opportunity to meet the girls they will be riding with for the rest of their careers is very special and as well as learning a lot on the mountian the girls learnt a lot about how to organze themselves, present themselves to the media and how to train to get fit and prevent injury.
I was happy to have two fellow highlanders along with me, Abigail Dempster and Ashlee Smith, both from the Spey Valley. Abigail is only 13 and Ashlee is 16 so they really have a long career ahead of them. They made the most of the camp and by the end of it were chatting away in French quite the thing to the French girls. Abi and Ashlee will be competing along with fellow UK rider, Aimee Fuller from Northern Ireland, in the UK contests this season and are looking forward to putting their new tricks to the test.
As well as the Roxy camp, there were many other National Teams training in Saas Fee in preperation for the up coming World Cup at the end of the month. I will be heading back out to the fairy valley in a weeks time to also compete in the next snowboard World Cup event. In the meantime I will get out into the Scottish highlands to see if I can see any of our own highland fairies!
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
Sidlaw wheeling
October 15, 2007 on 5:27 pm | In Snowboarding | No Comments
I have spent the last week in Scotland enjoying the amazing autumn colours while out cycling on my mountian bike and road bike. The weather has been pretty dry so I have been able to make the most of the autumn sunshine. I made the most of the opportunity to take another ride up Glen Einich in Cairngorm, which is my favourite place to mountian bike. After my ride up Glen Einich I really got the taste for autumn biking and decided to explore a few more of my favourite rides. I had an amazing ride up GLen Feshie, which although is not really an off road cycle, is very, very beautiful all the same, especially at this time of year when all the trees are changing colour.
As well as mountian biking, I got in a few great runs on my road bike. This time, I was staying in Dundee so I decided to check out the little back roads around the Sidlaws. From Dundee, if you head towards Bridgefoot then to Auchterhouse you ride along a little quiet back road that takes you right along the back side of the Sidlaws. The Sidlaws are lovely rolling hills behind Dundee which offer great views of the Tay and surrounding countryside. the trees looked amazing in all their autumn colours making the hills look like they were covered by a patch work quilt. The area around Dundee is not really known for the cycling terrain but there really are some great rides. As well as many small and quiet back roads, there are also tracks on the Sidlaws that are excellent for mountain biking on.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
meeting a legend
October 6, 2007 on 6:56 pm | In Ski Mountaineering | 1 Comment
I am very happy to be back in Scotland after my summer/winter in New Zealand. As soon as I got home I got out my mountina bike and took it for a spin up Glen Einich. I love it up there and it is definitely on eof my favourite places to go mountain biking. There are two route options on the way up, before you get to the main river crossing. You can either take the high road or the low road alongside the river. The high road takes you up a pretty steep climb for around 15 to 20 mins but gives you by far the best views up the glen and back down towards the Spey Valley. I take the high road every time. Taking the high road also means you get to wizz down the steep hill before the high road runs back into the low road at the river side. Great fun indeed. I nver tire of the remoteness of Glen Einich and can definitely see why people from all over the world love to come hill walking and climbing in the Cairngorms. The last week i was in New Zealand I did an avalanche awareness course which was led by legendary NZ mountaineer, Bill Atkinson. he was telling me how he would love to come to Scotland to walk and climb in the mountains there and that he has a lot of respect for the many great climbers and mountaineeers that have come out of Scotland and the North of England.
Bill proved to be one of the most interesting chararacters I have ever met and the avalache course was extremely interesting. We learnt about all aspecs of avalanche danger and snow analysis from slope access and route finding to slope angle, aspect, terrain and weather. As well as in the field observations, we spent three days int he classroom pouring over weather charts and pics of snow, avalanche phenomenon and different snow crystals. All throughout the course Bill told us stories from his many mounaineering experiences. He had been in many life or death situations in the mountians and had lost many close friends in tragic mountain accidents. One of his closest friends and climbing partners was the legendary Rob Hall who was killed in a particulary nasy storm on Everest in may 1996 along with 8 other people. Like Bill, Rob was a mountian guide and had made a very successful living from guiding clients on high altitude ascents including Mt Everest. He ran one of the tightest ships as far as guiding companies go but was still caught out in the unforgiving ‘death zone’ above 8000m on Everest. Bill’s many stories peaked my curiosity a lot and after the course was finished I started to research his career. He has many first ascents of mountains both in New Zealand and all over the world and a wealth of experience. I felt privaledged to have had him as my course leader.
On researching Bill I also found many climbiing and mountaineering stories from the Scottish hills. There is a whole legacy of mountaineering and climbing literature from Scotland that is well worth a read and also a whole legacy of Scottish ‘Bills’ with stories to tell. I am planning to do a few more mountain safety courses in Scotland in the next few months and I hope that I get to meet some of these characters.
Lesley McKenna
http://www.chunkyknit.com
Professional snowboarder, film maker and ambassador for Visitscotland. All sorts of outdoor sports from skiing to mountain biking and now mixes her time on the Snowboard World Cup Tour with time in Scotland doing these sports.
