Adventure Blog Scotland | Snow » 2008

Good Ol Cairngorm

February 28, 2008 on 5:02 pm | In Snowboarding, Skiing | 1 Comment

I had a good ol weekend up on Cairngorm last weekend in the hope that the wind would drop and we would get the Roxy comp under way. Unfortunately, Cairngorm was living up to it’s character and the wind was going nowhere fast except southwesterly very strongly indeed, gusting 98mph no less!!! I taled to the main weather man up on the mountain and he told me the wind has been exceptional in the last few weeks with the highest ever recorded wind speed of 186mph!!!!!!!!!! a few weeks ago.

The good thing is though, that March brings calmer weather and there is still plenty snow around, especially in the park. The crew at Cairngorm have done an amazing job of pushing the snow around and have saved the pistes there from the worst of the wind. Here is the view from the cat on the way down the M105. There are a few more competitions due to run in the park on Cairngorm in the coming weeks so I am sure the wind will drop for some of those days.

The high winds did not damped spirits though and the night time event still went off with a bang. The theme was retro ski and in keeping with the theme the party was held in the one and only Winking Owl, home of many an Aviemore Alpine night out in years gone by and enjoying a new burst of life this current season. there were a lot of very retro looking bods around and they were all hoping for the wind to die down so they could go and get their shred on the snow as well as the dance floor!!

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.

An old legend

February 19, 2008 on 1:36 pm | In Snowboarding, Skiing | 1 Comment

I have just spent a great two weeks in Jackson Hole in Wyoming in the USA with ex pat Scot and mountain legend Davie Agnew. I went to the area to film for the next round of Roxy pod casts and got in touch with Davie, who has lived in the Tetons for the last 35 years to ask if he would mind showing us around a little as I knew he knew the area well. Davie grew up in Glasgow and was one of the first band of mountaineer pioneers to take to ski-ing and use his mountain knowledge to get into the backcountry and ski some untracked powder snow. He worked on Cairngorm for a few years in the 60’s before the European Alps called his name and he moved to Switzerland.

After a few years in Switzerland and the death of his good friend in a climbing accident, Davie moved to Colorado and then on to Wyoming where he finally settled, feeling happy that there were enough unexplored mountains for him there. he spent the next 35 years of his life bagging first decents of many of the ski-able lines in the Tetons and surrounding area and still goes out ski-ing most winter days to this day.We were lucky enough to have Davie as our guide for the trip and he was obviously thrilled to show us around and take us to the good spots.

We hiked around on the Teton Pass in chest deep powder, Davie leading the way and breaking trail for us then watched him very elegantly ski down some of the nicest lines I have ever seen. Davie has been telemark ski-ing for a very long time now and this allows him to use ski skins to get out into the back country. As we were snowboarding we had to follow up hill on snowshoes which made for some pretty tiring days on the hill. The views and snow were spectacular though, and all the hiking was well worth it as we got some great footage. We were also kept going by a constant stream of tales from Davie who has travelled the world ski-ing and mountaineering and made me realize just how large a contribution Scots like Davie have made to the Worlds mountaineering and ski-ing fraternity. I am now back in Scotland and looking forward to getting out on the Scottish hills this weekend for the Roxy competition on Cairngorm. Hope to see you there!!