Scottish Ski Touring

By David Nichol
(Glasgow Ski Touring Club)

While stumbling round Scotland's winter hills I hear some regular questions. The most common are "Where are we?" and "Do you think the pub will let us in with all this mud?", but this article tries to answer, "This ski touring carry-on, what is it, why do you do it, how do you it and, where do you do it?"

WHAT?
Depending on who you are talking to, ski touring is also known as cross-country skiing, ski mountaineering, or back country skiing. This is skiing as transport, rather than competition. Ski touring has two sects, Nordic and Alpine. You can tell them apart by looking at the boot-to-ski bindings. Nordic ski bindings are only fixed at the toe, while Alpine bindings have a toe hinge and heel clamp. The important differences are that, while Alpine touring kit is intended for climbing up and skiing down very steep ground, the lighter Nordic gear is faster uphill or on the flat. Uphill travel without ski tows becomes possible through the use of"skins", tough fabric strips stuck to the bottom of the ski. A pair of skins will last for years, but only cost the price of a couple of chairlift day tickets.

WHY?
The most obvious appeal of skiing is the adrenaline buzz that comes from whizzing through a cold, white, landscape. For a hill goer skiing offers winter mobility, and an end to snow melt down your boot as you exhaust yourself digging thigh deep post holes through the snowdrifts. Some ski tourers are seekers of solitude; escapees from the chairlift company's burger bars, hurdy-gurdies and seething mobs in dayglo purple nylon.

HOW?
Most Scottish ski tourers start as summer hill walkers. After a couple of winter seasons they have acquired some skill in navigation and experience of ice axe and crampons, but
literally want to lift themselves out of the ruts, and skim away to freedom. At that point a smart move would be to learn to ski. I know that this sounds blindingly obvious, but an awful lot of people seem to think that they can just strap on a pair of planks and set off.

Get some lessons, preferably from someone qualified. The speed of down hill travel on skis adds a complication to navigation; learn how to judge angle of slope from an Ordnance map, how to use an altimeter, how to pace distance on "skins", and use a GPS for relocation. Find a group of like minded buddies, perhaps anMCofS affiliated club. In the short term advice from more experienced members of such a group may save you some dosh, in the future they may save your life.
During our long off-season it is easy to allow our skiing skills to become rusty; muscle memory fades pretty quickly. By the time winter comes round again, it pays to have had regular practise using an artificial slope, or roller blades, or both.

WHERE?
Steep rock and skis don't mix; avalanches, too steep for the average skier, wind scoured ice fields, ski destroying stone chips, that sort of thing. Big round, green, hills that may be boring in summer time become an impressive, exciting, new world with snow on them. Close cropped sheep ranges are skiable with a thinner snow cover on them than deep heather grouse moors.
Hills which match our criteria are easy to list; the Ladder Hills of Aberdeenshire, the areas around Ben Wyvis, Lochnagar, Ben Avon, the Monadliath, Drumochter, Ben Alder, Ben Lawers, the Ochil and Luss Hills, Lammermuir and Tweedsmuir. That is a huge touring area, on our doorstep.
When snow is lying down in the forests, the Nordic Ski Centers at Huntly and the Slochd are a brilliant resource for beginners and bairns.
The MCofS Hut List, the SYHA, the private bunkhouses, the Borders Bothies Association all offer good bases for ski trips. The Met Office and"trafficscotland.org" webcams, and the Mountain Weather Information Service website help us to find snow. The Cicerone Press guide book "Ski touring in Scotland", by Angela Oakley, suggests some good routes, but these are only a taster for what is out there.

So this winter, when you are wading back down to the Glen at 1km per hour and hear swishing noises with cries of "Yee-ha !", give this ski touring carry-on another thought.