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This past weekend we had a long weekend off-island to go and visit my parents before Christmas and do some Christmas shopping in Glasgow.

However, I’ve always wanted to go skiing in Scotland before Christmas, just to prove it can actually be done! So despite only arriving in Ayrshire at 03:30, we set off for Aviemore and Cairngorm at 06:15 departing the same fog that had been present on the trip up from Lancashire. Fortunately the weather forecast was accurate and north of Pitlochry we broke out into a beautiful crisp, clear winter morning. Arriving at Aviemore just after 10:00, we headed straight to the ski centre.

The conditions were reasonable on the Ciste fairway, but the ice made the ptarmigan bowl unpleasant and the Cas out of our personal limits. However, we had a great time skiing on the fairway, despite having only had 2.5hrs sleep since 08:00 the previous day. Fortunately there were very few skiers and boarders out on Friday, so despite the relatively limited terrain and lifts, there was no need to queue all day.

Rather than head back to Ayrshire that evening, we decided to stay overnight at the Hilton in Coylumbridge. The next day we went to see the Cairngorm reindeer, then back down the A9 re-entering the fog just north of Perth.

It was an excellent weekend, and just goes to show that Scottish skiing is still a very viable option for anybody in the UK – it’s just a case of making use of it when the conditions are good. Hopefully we can squeeze another weekend in sometime in late January.