Thoughts on Snow Trips Past & Future

Time for snowshoes

Today the snow was deep enough for me to try out some new snowshoes. I've been waiting quite a while to do this. Previous snowfalls haven't been deep enough but the recent snowfall is four or five inches deep everywhere and much deeper in many places where it has drifted.

Wandering the fields and woods in the snow I thought about future wintry trips and remembered previous ones. Next week I'll be heading into the Cairngorms for two nights with Peter Elliott of PHD to try out a winter version of the Sleep System I tried with him last summer (see this post) and then used with great success on my Yosemite to Death Valley walk last autumn. I'm hoping for really cold temperatures!

2016's Glen Affric igloo

Next month I'm planning an igloo trip with members of the Inverness Backcountry Snowsports Club. We did this last year above Glen Affric and had a comfortable night in an igloo in stormy weather. I wrote about the trip on this blog here and for The Great Outdoors. The latter piece has just been posted on the magazine's website.

Today the high Cairngorms were hidden in cloud. I hope to be up there in the snow soon and to have trips as memorable as this one last February. But for now the snow has made the fields and woods in the glens wilder and more exciting and tramping round them on snowshoes feels like a real winter adventure.

An elongated winter shadow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View across Strathspey to the Cromdale Hills