Just booked a backcountry ski tour for this weekend but didn’t realise it was different to the one I was thinking of 🥵 oops

Clearly not being able to do a kick turn may well be a problem, but the other concern is fitness. It says 1200 hm and must be very fit.

My very fit days are long gone, and the only skinning I did was 300m in boiling hot sun, which fried me.

1200m on a MTB, or indeed under it, would be no problem. Is uphill skiing more tiring than uphill MTB?

British backcountry course? 1200m climb isn’t a lot to worry about, I doubt the pace will be high. About twice up to top of Cairngorm from the Ciste car parks innit?

Kick turns aren’t always essential, but are useful to learn in case you need them. Practice in your living room. At the moment conditions appear that most typical ascents will be mostly contouring or bashing up gullies on foot.

That’s the one 🙂

Living room! This ain’t Balmoral you know…

Whilst we’re here…. Anyone happen to have a copy of the ( out of print) guidebook, or knowledge of which Drumochter Munro might have a half decent ribbon of snow up/ down it for a cheeky half day?

A’Mharconaich (behind the Boar of Badenoch, quite often corniced around the E/NE coire rim and obvious slides on the steeper face) and Geal Charn to the west of the pass are pretty obvious and visible when driving from the south. Land rover tracks in/out to link to the road if needed. Park near Balsporran to cross railway, follow the NE broad ridge to the shallow top (good terrain as doesn’t need much to be skinnable but may be snow free). West side towards Loch Ericht is a bit steeper but very open so doubtful on cover. South over the shallow saddle between the tops and up to A’Mharconaich being sensible around the steeps particularly if visibility poor. Depending on best cover then you can access land rover tracks to the south or East to bring you back to A9.

Those on the East are less obvious from roadside (and usually easier to spy driving south). I suspect given the wind direction nothing will appear too enticing from low down and doubt there’s much snow at all on low levels. The best stuff close to the road on this side tends to follow the burn lines and difficult to see from below. You can get to these going under the A9 where the streams go under the road unless water is high (if parking southbound no issue).

While Ben Alder area looked good on fairly recent images I’ve seen I’m doubtful that anything at Drumochter will be fulfilling. Creag Meagaidh also is one of my go-to options as a stop going north/south but latest sais doesn’t look amazing (if snow suits you’ll get some kick turns up the window from the loch and may be something steeper in Easy gully (heard Raeburns wasn’t great recently)).

I think currently for a half day maximising time on ski I’d be looking at up the Ciste (if cover is low enough) or joining the hordes out towards lurchers from the Cas car parks. I doubt snow line in feshie is low enough for a carn Ban Mor area half dayer either

Garden if not living room? It’s not so tricky, how’s your flexibility / bendiness ?

If 1200m on the bike is no problem I think you’ll be grand on skis.

I have had 8 days skiing in my life. If kick turns means the static 180 degree turn then I think I had dialed on day 4. You’ll be fine

Did 1100m in under an hour and a half recently which isn’t shoddy at 63 but gave up at 500m the day before yesterday because breaking trail through 30cm+ of heavy fresh was quite enough physically and mentally. The mtb equivalents are 1100m up a gravel road or 500m up sticky clay with the bike on your back because the wheels won’t go round. How long is a piece of string?

If you can’t do a kick turn facing out do a conversion facing the slope instead, and if you can’t do that flop into the snow, flip the skis over and head off in the other direction. 🙂 I demonstrated the flop in the snow technique to an 80-year-old local guide who was demonstrating ancestral ways of doing conversions. 🙂

@thegeneralist is this the book you’re trying to find. The one with imaginary pictures of impossibly sunny, clear snowy days in Scotland.

If you need a couple of pages photographing I can email them to you if you pm me and email.

For ‘reliability’ combined with accessibility compromise of ski tours if heading up from South of the border then the Glass Maol to Carn a Tuirc traverse from Glenshee is my recommendation. If it’s really poor you can skin up the piste opposite to the Cairnwell, or sit in the cafe watching the rain and regretting the waste of time and petrol.

I also endorse the bum turn (facing out) for situations where body or bottle says no to a kick turn.

Or really the way to train for ski touring in Scotland is just to walk up and down any steep hill in the rain while carrying your skis. Character building at least.

Hope you have a great tour. I’m v. jealous as currently time and fitness poor.

Cheers all.
Booked at Cairngorm Sat & Sunday so Unlikely to get to Glenshee.

If you want to avoid the ski car park crowds then some of the routes running down the North side of Glen Feshie often hold snow well. Not too committing on the walk in front compared to some spots either.

Hope you find some good snow👍

So @thegeneralist, how did you get on? Worthwhile days out?

is this the book you’re trying to find. The one with imaginary pictures of impossibly sunny, clear snowy days in Scotland

The new one should be out in the not too distant future.

So. It was pretty good really.
Course was with this mob:
https://www.british-backcountry.co.uk/ski-touring
I think Gavin is the guy writing the guidebook..he said the new version might be out by autumn, but given he said he wants a couple more routes to put in it I’m not convinced.

First day was very dreich. Got quite wet. This is loch Etchachan

But then the sun came out.

I wasn’t fully convinced on the pitch choice TBH. On the first day we did a line by the burn south of hell’s lum crag. It was a bit meh but not too bad
But then on Sunday we did a line down towards loch Aan. I think it was Corrie raibert. The top was lovely but the bottom was sticky and non existent. A very think ribbon of rocky heathery snow. As the group went down it got worse and people were really struggling. A few fell and so me and another woman just found some boulders to sit on and waited for them to finish and climb back up. TBH it was hard to see if the descent was any better than the slog back up.
The guide said he was following a classic spring tour sequence to make the most of the sun east, south then west facing slopes. Which would have made sense had the snow been hard pack, but it wasn’t. There was a layer of fresh on top which skiied lovely when cold but was nightmare sticky in the sun. So the east, south, west approach was completely bonkers. We should have stayed on high shady slopes.
We then crossed Coronation wall with the intention of doing the Ciste Gully. At this point I bailed and did Coronation wall a couple of times on my own. I had no interest in losing all that height on a diagonal run down to ski a piste.

Learned a fair bit, but wasn’t overwhelmed by route choice.

^ cool, thanks for the write up. Probs not too bad given the winter we’ve had. Still hoping to get out this weekend but the weather will dictate how likely that is now.