Caiplie House Goings On

In the early and mid-eighties I spent a great deal of time on Cairngorm mountain. With great snow winters we skied from Christmas to Easter and sometimes beyond.

It was a great place, a friendly place, a fun place. So it has been with some sadness I have watched as the industry has dwindled in Scotland.With a little guilt I have taken off to the Alps every winter for the last fifteen years

When I got the chance to work for The Ski School on Cairngorm last week I was delighted. However it was like going back to a house you used to live in and the new owners have made big changes! No chairlifts some old t-bars gone, some new lifts and a TRAIN!

What a week as good a snow cover as I have ever seen (As good as Easter 1983)

We could ski all over and I made the most of the light, dry snow, climbing up towards the summitt after work to ski The Coronation Wall a couple of times. The last time I did that was at Easter 1983 on April Fools day and our little group skied out of an avalanche. Our ski instructress had some explaining to do!

What a great week visiting old nooks and crannies we had enjoyed as kids. All the old jumps are in the same places. Children I knew stared out of forty year old faces.Eyes twinkling.

I love Fife but it really is flat after a spell in the Alps! I look at the Lomonds with longing and even Largo Law excites me.

So it was with great excitement that we charged off into the Perthshire hills on Monday. We purchased a new OS map, filled the flask with soup and set of for some high ground.

We found ourselves in the little known Glen Artnay.A trudge up a hillside found us above 600m and snow patches! We startled a herd of red deer who looked more than surprised to find humans on their hill!

With views up to a white Ben Vorlich, the buzzards circling and the stags roaming the hillsides you couldn’t ask for much more.

Now where is the coast?