Scottish Ski Touring
A Tale of Lockdown and Corruption of Youth
by Stewart Carrie
This is a tale of how COVID-19 changed a ski touring expedition to Pico de Aneto (3404m) in the Spanish Pyrenees into an opportunity for the corruption of youth.
Thursday 12th March: the airline cancels our flights to the continent. Friday 13th March (the date should have been the clue): a nice man from the Federación Aragonesa de Montañismo phones to rescind our hut bookings. So much for hut-to-hut touring in continental ranges!
It turned out that despite being a bad day for going abroad, Friday 13th had fine weather and great conditions closer to home. By way of compensation, a bout of late-night texting on Thursday resulted in a small group heading for Meall Corranaich (1069m) in the Ben Lawers range early Friday morning. Not as high as Ben Lawers (1214m) itself, Meall Corranaich has the advantage of a less rocky peak, enabling skiing to the summit, and deep corries north and south that hold snow.
After a bit of pushing the car over icy patches on the access road, we set off from just above the National Trust for Scotland car park. It is always a bonus to start skinning immediately, rather than the more common Scottish phenomenon of first having to trudge across substantial stretches of heather. We took a line into Coire Odhar traversing up and around the mountain’s southern spur. Before the end of the corrie we took a short scramble up on to the ridge and thence skied to the summit.
The view was spectacular and we could see miles and miles of snow-capped peaks. More significantly, the slopes falling to the north were covered in pristine snow. We skirted the rim of the corrie until we could drop through a gap in the cornice and whoosh, down on perfect snow. Now being behind the hill, we returned to Meall Corranaich’s summit in an anti-clockwise semi-circle, following the ridgeline.
By now, there was some cloud causing flat light. There was a debate on whether to wait for a break but an unpleasantly cold wind became the decisive factor. We descended the steep gully in the centre of Meall Corranaich’s south face, trying to see the hard and soft patches of snow before actually hitting them. At the bottom we were able to ski out all way to the car.
The following weekend, still pining for the Pyrenees, I hankered for a repeat trip. Unfortunately, none of my companions were free. Rather than go alone (and by virtue of owning two sets of ski touring gear) I wondered about inducing my 14-year-old Darling Daughter (DD) to try ski touring. After clearing this scheme with my beloved wife, I managed to persuade her. It was a lovely day and she is a pretty competent downhill skier. She could use my newer/better/lighter set of touring skis and boots, and I would carry both sets of skis over the heather.
During the intervening week, much of the snow had melted from Meall Corranaich’s southern flank. However, the east of Meall nan Tarmachan still had a pretty good covering. This time there was a half-a-mile walk until there was sufficient snow to put skis on, and, as we left the car, some wit asked if I would carry his skis too.
I chose a fairly relaxed line, as a gentle introduction to uphill skiing. DD had a bit of trouble on a steeper traverse, but I was pleased that after a while she was skinning confidently, if not always comfortably. The mystic art of kick turns was even introduced, which DD picked up pretty quickly. A drawback of my route choice was that we crested the ridge at a relatively low altitude and ran out of snow for a while, meaning I had to repeat my paternal duty of carrying all the skis along the ridge.
After 400m of climbing, we stopped for lunch overlooking Coire Fionn-Làirige and Loch Tay, before the final steep section below Meall nan Tarmachan’s rocky peak (1044m). I decided that this was a good place to turn around, as the last part would move into winter mountaineering territory, a potentially over-ambitious addition to the day.
We could ski straight on to the east side of Meall nan Tarmachan from our lunch spot. Following the snow, we descended in and out of a steep shallow gully and then traversed across wider expanses above rocky outcrops. Lower down, we skied from patch to patch among the heather, finally ribbon-skiing almost back to the road. We experienced that other notable Scottish ski touring phenomenon: starting on rock-hard wind-blown snow and within a 400m descent moving through flattering snow and ending on damp slush.
It was not a long day, but as an introduction to ski touring, DD took it all in her stride and I was a Proud Dad. Although I still would have liked to have the Pyrenean expedition, however these two days were great examples of ski touring in Scotland; and opened DD’s eyes to the world of “Explorer Skiing”.
Footnotes:
- Skiing on Ben Lawers is accessed from the unclassified road, and never ploughed or gritted, 4 miles north-east of Killin, OS Landranger Sheet 51.
- In conversation at the car I discovered that DD, not being sure what to pack in a rucksack on a ski tour, had included a hairbrush and a paperback book. Plod, my old ski touring guru, would have been appalled.
DD on Meall nan Tarmachan
Photo by Stewart Carrie
Meall Corranaich looking north
Photo by T Mine
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