A Mid-summer's Day Ski Camp
Sunday 20th - Monday 21st June 2010
By Brent
An intrepid party of Jan, Ian, Hamish (Skye), Brent, Colin and his friend KC did ski on the actual longest day of the year which was the Monday of the longest weekend.
The adventure began at noon on the Sunday using the lifts. The Funicular was open on the day for skiers and the lift company laid on a few wee rope tows on snow patches near the Ptarmigan piste where the kickers had been. The Ski Club of Great Britain were having a piste de-littering event, Winterhighland members all met up and there was even a hog roast in the car park.
The ‘piste’ skiing fascinated for a few runs and clearly greater things were required. After a sunny lunch on the Ptarmigan terrace, a walk to the summit of Cairngorm confirmed that there were indeed enough linkable snow patches to enable a skin up MacDui later. There was some concern, however, about the wind and what its effect would be in the camping phase of operations.
There then followed a wonderful ski down the Ciste Gully which gave a surprising amount of vertical on excellent spring snow. The long walk out was combined with a spot of ritual piste de-littering. The party then descended to Aviemore for a refueling pit stop having missed out on the hog roast by actually skiing.
After a substantial ‘as much as you can eat’ buffet, the party reconvened in the car park to gear up for the evening ascent. The plan was walk up Lurchers Gully to find a camping spot sheltered from the wind, watch the sunset and then the sunrise on the shortest night before ascending Ben MacDui to mark the longest day.
Just as the party was setting off, Sam and Pete wandered in, having spent six hours on snow on the plateau that day. Their snow spotting intelligence was greatly appreciated as was their enthusiasm.
A camp was made just below the cloud base and Coire n Sneachda briefly explored before sleep was attempted. By sunset the wind dropped and a few high altitude midges emerged. The low cloud made for a less than magic sunset and sunrise but the morning presented no navigational challenges.
There was sufficient snow on the NE facing slopes to make if feel like a proper tour in spite of the long flog in. The final walk to the summit found two Norwegians camped there who were most impressed with our dedication to the snowy arts. Two descent variations were then taken from the summit, one reversing the line of ascent while Brent alone followed Sam and Pete’s advice, descending towards Loch Etchachan before traversing around to join the others for the jaunt across the plateau where yet again the amount of snow surprised.
For some the fantastic ESTC ski season ended in purist uphill mode with the last skin up on the edge of the plateau while for others the downhill madness continued with no less than a descent of the steep headwall of Coire Cas. This was impressive work by Jan, Ian and Colin on Alpine gear. Hamish, however, got the man of the match award for doing it on skinny skis.
Technically the last season ended on the longest day at noon and, equally precisely, next season began at 12:01. Will it end as it began? We have booked a camping spot on Macdui summit for next year. Put it in your diary.
On the plateau below Macdui.
Colin (orange hat) Ian, Hamish and Jan about to descend the Ciste gulley.
Flying down the Ciste Gully.
A snowless bivy below Lurchers Crag