Day 33 of Scottish season 15/16. I woke around 6:00 to the wind and rain rattling the window. So thought I’d lie in a bit. The winds were supposed to abate later in the morning so I figured there should be no rush. On checking Winterhighland, Glencoe had announced things were on hold until 9:00. I decided to wait…

On the dot, it looks like uplift is go, so I got dressed had breakfast and was out before 9:30. In time to be up the hill before 12:00.  The drive up had been wet and grey. The Access chair was pretty blustery and I was sure I was going to lose my board! By the time I’d walked up the Plateau to the Cliffy Chair the wind was calm. It was drier now with clouds scudding across the tops. It had warmed up a bit and the snow was soft. The rain had gone to work and smoothed much of it out.

I spent the majority of the afternoon spinning in Main Basin and learning tripods, sliding down on the nose of my board with tail up in the air and hands in the snow. Gloves get extremely wet when you try this!  I’d also taken my lighter, shorter board. This was great fun to play on in the spring snow. I think I’m seriously going to have to look into a flexible freestyle board to do more of this stuff.

The fence jump was good but the landing was a bit sticky. In fact many patches of fresh snow were very sticky and slow due to the amount of rain they had absorbed no doubt.

At one point I seem to have hooked up and edge and took a rather large tumble, cartwheeling as I went down the slope. It was only when I was coming back up the lift that I realised my compact G16 camera was no longer in the goggle pocket where I usually keep it. I panicked and was patting myself down trying to find it. It must have fallen out during the fall. I was thinking I should get up and check the slope immediately or at least see if it had been handed in. As I got further up the t-bar I gave myself one more check over and realised the camera was just resting on the opposite side of my jacket with nothing holding it in place. Once at the top, I fished the camera out and put it back in the pocket it started in.

All in all this was a fantastic day, trying out new moves and making the most of the spring snow. Today was another example of hitting the slopes, even when the weather looks bad. Proving once again nothing ventured, nothing gained. Give it a go, you may just enjoy yourself. Who knows!