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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Drama
BBC reports today that an RAF Mountain Rescue helicopter had to make an emergency landing last night whilst airlifting an injured climber to safety in the Cairngorms. Seems the helicopter blades started to ice up and they had to put down quickly. The crew walked out safely to Glenmore whilst the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team carried the injured climber to safety through deep snow and freezing conditions.
Posted by bigcrags @ 10:43 AM 0 comments
 Monday, February 27, 2006 Central Gully Ben Lui  Had a great day out on Ben Lui near Tyndrum yesterday, going up Central Gully, a grade 1 classic that pops you out right on top of the mountain. Given the long walk-in from the A82 road, it was surprisingly busy. The weather was phenomenal though and the entire day was a success. My helmet had an adventure of it's own however, deciding to decend around 1000ft off the other side of the hill whilst I was having lunch at the top. It was retrieved though and didn't seem any worse for the experience. The central gully route up this hill seems to be a good basic introduction to winter mountaineering for lots of people and is highly recommended. Posted by bigcrags @ 12:00 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 23, 2006 Skiing conditions in Scotland (finally)
Hold the front page, the snow has arrived. There is skiing in Scotland this weekend. This from an email sent to me today:
Me - well my skis will have to wait. I'm off to climb Central Gully on Ben Lui. Hopefully there won't be too much extra snow and it will be nicely in condition. Remember if you are heading out in the snow this weekend to check the avalanche forecast before you head off: http://www.sais.gov.uk/latest_forecast/ Posted by bigcrags @ 4:15 PM 0 comments
Friday, February 17, 2006 Hiking Boot Bags  I'm glad to say we've got the hiking boot bags back on the shelves in the store. These are one of our most popular outdoors products and we get great feedback from customers about them. The theory is simple: you get back to your car after a hike, drop your boots into the bag, zip it up and you won't spread mud all over everyone's stuff in the back of the car. Same deal at home, stop them from messing up the rest of your shoe rack. These boot bags have a mesh top on them too so that the boots have the ability to breathe until you get a chance to let them dry naturally. At only GBP9 they won't break the bank either. I know your tesco carrier bag might be cheaper, but don't your boots deserve better? Posted by bigcrags @ 1:31 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Winter Skills Course - you need 3 ice axes!
So the snow has deserted your normal winter climbing spots. Your kit is lying in a cupboard getting wrapped in spider webs and the idea of dry-tooling with all that metal scratching against rock thing just makes your teeth shudder. What do you do now?
Get 3 ice axes and learn to juggle: http://www.youtube.com/?v=DYZ4QmX6waA Brilliant (via GOBlog) Posted by bigcrags @ 3:25 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 09, 2006 Snow in Scotland in February?
I met some friends in Pitlochry on sunday for a stroll up Ben Vrackie behind Moulin. The hill is not a Munro, but is only a kick in the pants off it and is one of the hills that stands out as you drive around Perthshire, or up the A9 on your way north.
The first thing that struck me was the signposting and immaculately manicured path all the way to the summit. It must have been backbreaking work constructing that path. ALl very nice, but a little bit too tame for me. As far as routefinding goes, with the path and all the signposts I didn't need a map and wouldn't have done unless there was snow. That's the thing though. It's February. Surely there should be some snow building up by now on these hills. Yes I know Ben Vrackie's only 2700 ft but come on, where is the snow? I've had my skis out a total of once this year. My winter climbing friends are having to queue for hours at the bottom of the few deep gully routes that actually have any snow in them. Pretty soon the clocks will change, winter will be on it's way out and we'll have had no snow. again. The ski centres will all go into receivership and I'll be selling a set of backcountry skis on ebay (hardly used!). Perhaps if we all do a mass snow dance at 5pm on friday we might be able to summon up some white fluffy stuff for the weekend. Perhaps not though. Maybe I should move to Canada. Posted by bigcrags @ 4:57 PM 1 comments
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