My wildest day this winter, Exciting conditions at the Shelterstone and the Female Yeti ( and Matt if you happened to read this....those icicles growing on to my hair on that wild day in the Fiacall Couloir are nothing by the standards set today!!!)

Well what can I say about today.... I decided to venture out on my own for a wee tour into Coire Raibert via fiacall Coire Cas and back over Cairngorm to take some piccies of the wild weather and the snowy hills. That was the plan anyway. I didn't leave until 1pm but thought it was only going to be a little trip and the weather didn't look all that bad....

It was very windy but I thought that the winds were suppose to get stronger and then ease off again later in the day. However the winds picked up more and more and turned into a full on blizzard that I have seldom been in on my own.

If you follow the photo sequence you can see that it started off very nice and friendly out there. Blowy alright but not a bad day at all. When I got to the top of Fiacall Corrie Cas it started to become quite wild. I met Sean from Glenmore Lodge who was assessing MIC's and he told me that two folks had been avalanched at the bottom of Jacob's Ladder but luckily walked away from it.

I wasn't planning on going anywhere steep with a big avalanche hazard. Still thinking the conditions were ok I skied down Coire Raibert to have a look at the conditions on the Shelterstone. The winds were picking up rapidly and most of the time it was a complete white out. I felt quite dizzy skiing and it was to say the least an interesting experience to be out there on my own. Once I got right to the edge I couldn't believe the difference from a couple of weeks ago. Quite some cornices on the west/SW side of the burn and the buttresses looked amazing. There are some piccies lower down so have a look if you are interested in the conditions over there.

As the weather got ferocious I turned round and tried to put my skins back on. On of the skins was completely covered in snow as soon as I got it out and wouldn't stick for the life of it so I skinned back up on one skin and one ski. By that time I could hardly stand up and on my way back to the Coire rim I was picked up several time by the wind. It was now a full on continuous white out and bitterly cold. Everything froze rapidly and I literally started to look and feel like a female version of the Yeti! My hair, my face, my jacket, my eyelids, everything that could freeze froze! I was for the first time in my life worried about frostbite and concerned about getting back ok. It was a battle to get back to point 1141m and as you can gather I didn't go anywhere near Cairngorm. I managed to half crawl half ski down the Fiacall and I can't tell you how glad I was to see the mid station.

It still was a fantastic day out but I also felt I was put out of my comfort zone and realized that I am not indestructible.

Cranking it up at the Extreme Dream

After a day getting brain fried behind the computer it was time to put up some sweat at the Extreme Dream wall in Aviemore. I absolutely love the place... Stevie and Scottie have done such a great job putting this place up. It has a brilliant atmosphere, provides a superb training venue, is user friendly, and if you are in need of a social and a good chill out then this is where you want to go on your night off. They also run fantastic courses and climbing events. Check out the link on this page for their site.

Anyway tonight was just one of these good socials mixed with cranking it hard and a lot of banter. Good crowd of keen foulks. George Reid, Desiree Wilson, Mark Chadwick, Hannah Burrow Smith(literally straight of the hill still in boots and waterproofs), Pete Gwatkin and a big bunch of other regulars were all up for a good session.

George and I had agreed we were going for a night of Speed and Stamina in keeping with the Husky Snow Stars scheme..(if anyone is interested I can tell you all about it, well in fact George is probably the man to ask!) So this meant in theory lot's of fast up and down climbing.... We did start of like that but soon got caught by some more challenging routes instead of running up jugsville.

Eventually Mark and George encouraged me to give the red roof a try. Ohh help....however I got a a couple of clips further then a few weeks ago and was satisfied with that...Next time I will crack it! George was next and was going strong until the down climbing section at the end... This is where he needed 3 birds to pull him back up to the roof....Desiree, Kath and myself were all hanging of the rope without much success but good entertainment value and apparently a pleasant sight for the guys!!! Thanks to Mark for taking some pictures. Eventually we released George out of his slightly uncomfortable position..He was a happy man. We finished the evening with some other interesting routes suitably tired. We were in there for a good 3 hours and although not as fast as we planned we got quite a lot of mileage in.

Me feel happy and content and look forward to a day in them white hills tomorrow...The forecast looks rather exciting but then you can always get something done on a wild day..you just have to choose well!!!!

Cheerio,

Chris

A day in the hills with Dundee Highschool 9-03-08

On Sunday I was working for Beyond Adventure with Dundee High School in the bonny hills of Perthshire. The group was on a DoE gold training day to get them prepared for their expedition training. I met the 5 girls at Rumbling bridge carpark. The rain that had fallen the previous day and the night before had made the rumbling Bridge falls a spectacular site and Goat boaters would have had an exciting time on the Braan but I didn't spot anyone....Shame, shame because it looked a pretty exciting run!

The weather on Sunday itself was mixed and perfect for navigation and experiencing some wild conditions. It varied from sunshine, to snow blizzard, to rain showers and back to sunshine. The girls were a great bunch and properly switched on.

We walked into Glen Garr and headed up to the Obney hills. On the summit there is an interesting hill fort. The weather turned pretty nasty on the top which made it even more exciting. Once we got some visibility back we looked across to the SW to identify one of the summits and saw another interesting structure on the top of it which was marked on the map as an obelisk. We decided to head down and climb the hill on the other side to check it out. The hill was called Craig Gibbon and the Obelisk looked like a sort of ancient monument. I would like to know what it signifies and how old it is so if anyone has got any ideas on that please let me know.

Another good day that blew out the cog webs!

See yahs,

Christel

HAPPYYYYY BUNNNYYY

Me so happy as we all passed our assessment today. Many thanks to Duncan Freshwater and Sean Langmuir. You guys are incredibly inspiring and it has been a privilege to meet you both. Also thanks to Ruaridh and Dave. Good luck with your off-piste mountain safety next week....Think biomechanics when you are skiing in all that bumpy, lumpy hopefully lot's of white stuff!!

Chris

One more day...

Today is judgement day then...last day of assessment. Hopefully we all do well and pass. I look out of the window and it is raining but sunny...I know to a lot of you this might sound totally alien but that is Scotland for you. It creates the most amazing athmosphere and light. Let's pray to the weater gods that this means snow higher up!

Also good luck to Matt, Tim, Rob and Hannah today!!! Guys and girl ..you all rock so kick some ass in those mountains!!

Hopefully I will have some pictures to post tomorrow.

Just have a great day out there whatever you get up to!!!

Ciao,

Christel

I promised powder...and we got it!!! Alpine coach level 1 course with Duncan Freshwater and Sean Langmuir

As my fellow course members arrived today at the Cas carpark they would't believe me when I told them that the sun would be out later as in Scotland the sun always shines at some stage during the day!!

We arrived at the top in a proper bo white out! Believe it or not this can do wonders for your skiing....as it is all in the feel... However we opted to move very rapidly from Ptarmigan to Cas as we thought it beneficial for course purposes to see something. The first couple of hours was interesting so to speak but as the morning went on..guess what appeared? The Sun indeed! In combination with the fresh snow dropped overnight and early morning the conditions were just brilliant and yes.... for you alpine friends...we had powder.. in fact we had powder two days in a row.

Duncan Freshwater, our coach, who is a kinda of a local couldn't believe however how much the conditions had changed since his childhood. What is in my eyes a huge amount for Cairngorm was to him just a dusting. But all in all it is pretty good up there and as we got told by Sean Langmuir this afternoon...apparently the Cas Headwall is in perfect nick at present!!!! I was a littlebit envious it has to be said as I wouln't have mind a wee run down but we are on an training and assessment after all and not a week of play!

Great day and a super interesting course...look forward to tomorrow!

Cheerio for now,

Chris

BRAWA course 1/2 March 08 - The ultimate coasteering adventure

This weekend I had a complete change of scene as after having moved around on snow for the last 2 months I changed to the sea as my outdoor venue. I took part in the British rock and water association coasteering skills training led by Andy Spink, Earl, Drew Forbes and Dan.

It was an absolute cracking course that I can recommend to anyone involved in the outdoor industry as it is something totally different, exciting, fun and adventurous that you can target to any level in a wonderful wild environment.

The two days involved techniques for working with clients in a marine enviroment, swimming techniques, surf rescue skills, swell forecasting and bathology, tidal impact zone skills, jumping off things, the what if something goes wrong scenarios etc.

On Friday night we thought that the roof was going to blow of the building and that we would be hit by a rogue wave any minute. We were therefore surprised to see in the morning that the weather had turned to some blue sky and only a gentle breeze. We thought that we would find calm seas and a little swell but the opposit was true!!! The swell was big, choppy and irregular and super exciting to bob about in...it was also exceptionally cold!! But what a lot of fun. Swimming between different buffer zones, jumping in and getting out. Swimming into the boulder zone and dealing with rip tides etc.

On day 2 we expected the swell to be less but it was even bigger than the previous day. When we arrived at Easdale/ Seal Island at the bay we all stared with anticipation at the massive waves rolling into the bay. Hitting the cliffs on the left, bouncing off into the centre, rolling back to the cliffs to hit a 2nd time...it was absolutely spectacular but also quite intimidating, fear inspring maybe?

We started in the 'least choppy waters' to set up a swim line followed by throw line rescues which was slightly different than throw bagging on the river??? Here when on the rocks you are not dry or particularly safe as the waves come in and take you off your feet if you are not in a very pro active and stable position and the rope also floats in all directions including around the rescuers feet. Plus as the water round the rocks in the sea is flowing madly in all directions the person to be rescued can also have a very interesting time with ropes...it was very clear that ropes and water you really only want to use when no other options available.

We decided to move round to more exciting waters to do some sea level traversing and jumping of big cliffs in a biggggg swell to have a good practise at getting out of the water and back onto the cliffs. This was my favourite part of the weekend. The swell and the waves were so huge that you sometimes would end up about 5 to 10 meters higher on the cliffs than the actual sea level. It was intense but also a great feeling. The key in water is to go with it and don't work against it, don't fight it because it is much stronger than you are and you would never win! If you go with it however it is such a tremendous feeling, very relaxing I found!

We finished off with rescue scenarios and swimming with a conscious and unconscious casualty and some techniques to push your client off when they try to drown you....that is actually quite hard if you are wearing a steamer as they are so brilliantly bouyant!!

All in all a fab course and thanks to the guys for making it such a success!!!

This week I have moved back onto snow again to do another assessment course ....and since we had a decent amount of new snow in the Gorms I will try and put some powder shots on the blog this week!!!

Tada,

Chris