Sometimes we just may buy an ice axe without a rubberised shaft or manage to shred that rubber by tapping crampons when baling up. Well I had the latter and since it caused problems with the use of the axe I decided to fix it for good (hopefully).

Went up to the Cairnorm Plateau to do a wee bit of a rekey and discovered plenty of snow from about 1000m but it's almost all rock hard.

3 new sea kayaks have now arrived at Highland Ascent. To back up out continuous aim to produce quality sea kayaking holidays and courses we have decided to purchase composite sea kayaks instead of plastic. The new sea kayaks are Island Kayak Expedition, which are perfect for longer trips since they have large storage areas and are easier to controls and more stable than most other expedition kayaks out there. Of course composite boats look much better on photos too.

It can be quite handy to have a winter mountaineering repair kit or crampon repair kit. Just imagine you walk along on hard packed nevee snow and suddenly your crampons fall apart. What do you do now? Cry like a baby because you have to cut steps for the rest of the day or pull out a repair kit and fix it. I'm not trying to say that a repair kit can fix any proble with crampons. Once a Friend kicked a step with his crampons and hit a rock with the secondary front point, which in return just broke off. For some crampons it's no problem but they were C3 with the front bar attached to the breakage. The whole crampon fell off and dangled off his ankle. The only way he could continue the climb was by straping a sling around the crampon.

There seems to be a new player for climbing equipment on the market. Climbing Technology a company based in Italy has started throwing inexpensive climbing equipment on the market now making the big players almost look silly with their massive inflations. We thought of buying 2 pair of CT Nuptse Semi-Auto Crampons for this season and see how we get on with them.

We have run our first 5 Day Winter Skills Course this January. What a great time it was too. On our first day we went up Coire An't Sneachta and worked on walking on nevee snow and on steep ground. We also worked on tripping as that would be the most likely thing to trip up on steep ground up to 30 degree. To finish of the day we built emergeny snow shelters with our ice axes. That can be quite hard work at times but the snow wasn't too hard.
On Tuesday we Went up Coire na Ciste at Cairngorm to check out steep ground for avalanches. The ground was pretty firn but after a while we found some westerly slopes with some unstable top layer. After digging some snow pits for testing how stable the snow pack is we went on and did some sliding (ice axe arrest). We spent pretty much all afternoon working on all techniques and improved them as much as we could.
The next day we decided to work on steeper ground at Ben Wyvis and dig some bucket seats, use burried ice axes and bollards. Unfortunately the snow wasn't deep enough to demonstrate a stomper. But hey I think everyone got the idea how it works.
For the last 2 days we went onto the Cairngorm Plateau for an overnight expedition. The snow hole we bulit at Garbh Uisge Beag, which is usually a pretty good place. This time the snow was a bit on the thin side but we just about managed to dig a big enough hole.

Well it must be winter now. Snow has been in the Cairngorms for a few weeks now. This morning I woke up with hard frost outside and decided to do something about it. Prepare my winter walking gear, check over my crampons, ice axe and winter boots. Most important, since I mountain bike all year it's best to have tires that don't make me fall off on ice. So a slapped on my studded tires and made sure that my hardtail bike is ready to run.

Despite all the rainfall and the prospect of mud on some natural trails Simon and I ventured to Badaguish for some single track mountain biking. As usual the trails were technical and pretty trick on the uphills. Added to it were quite a few fallen trees which we cleared out of the way. Riding on some of the yellow needles was almost like biking on a golden carpet. But hey it was great fun and getting caked in mud is just part of the game. The Canadian, which is the last ride down, was some blast and picked up some good speed going down the hill.

Saturday and Sunday saw a 3 star sea kayak training and assessment with 3 candidates. We went to the Moray Firth around Rosemarkie and Fort George.

On Saturday we just went through most of the 3 star syllabus, making sure that everyone is getting up to the standard required for the assessment. Luckily the weather was pretty good with some sunshine and a wee bit of waves and some half metre swells. This allowed us to play a bit at the shingle beach of Fort George. Since it was a spring tide the crossing to the Black Isle was rather interesting.

After weeks of preparing for the BCU Level 3 River Kayak Assessment I managed to pass the 2 day course. Just as well since it was the last one ever, running in Scotland. Since I have done the training some 3 years ago I thought it was about time i get it all sorted. After the end of the year there are no more old style assessments.