Ming’s Summer Madness

It’s that time of year again. Here’s the opportunity to enter in this year’s Ming Challenge – a combined run and bike – on Saturday 4th June.  Donations are in aid of the British Nordic Development Squad so we encourage everybody who isn’t being a marshall to get out there and have fun.

There is the usual Ceilidh in the evening which is Bring Your Own refreshments and snacks this year, entry £5 for adults and £4 for children.

Contacts

Rick (richardnewman@clara.co.uk) or Trish (barron.family99@btinternet.com)

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New Club Nordic Instructors

The Snowsport Scotland Nordic Development Committee ran a two day rollerski based course for level 1 Nordic  Instructors this weekend at Huntly.  The tutors were Roger Homyer and Roy Young. The course focussed on improving the individual skiing skills of the trainees and their coaching skills. This should provide a boost to the teaching Huntly Junior Development Squad next winter as well as club nights.

In the end all 9 trainees passed the course assessment with one deferred pass. The course was challenging and great fun. Thanks to Roger and Roy for running it and the club for the sponsorship.

Congratulations to Malcolm and Kay Cooper, Will Strohm, Paul Gray, Claudia Zeiske, Deborah May, Ruaridh Newman & Alex Standen  on passing the course.

Hopefully a level 2 course will be run in the summer for the more technically gifted.

Photos From Last JDS

This weekend (20-March-2011) was the last full JDS day. We were fortunate to have fine weather and a dump of snow the previous week so the last meet of the year could be held on snow. Thanks to the Swarbriggs for the photos

Clash Conditions 4th February 2011

The snow has returned to the Clash & the trails are almost 100% complete. About 5-8cm of wet snow has fallen over the past couple of days giving a good skiing surface this afternoon. There are a few thin places where you can catch stones but you can ski around these. I will try to groom the trails tomorrow but this depends on the overnight weather. It was snowing this afternoon & these occasionally turned to sleet (temp 0degC). As long as there is not too much rain overnight then I think the skiing will be OK this weekend, but maybe not for your very best skis.

The one big problem today was Leids Leap. We would strongly recommend you only ski up this as there are wheel ruts that have frozen solid. Colin Miller has done a lot of spade work improving these but they are still a big problem for downhills. The wheel ruts were caused by Orange accessing their mast to re-fuel. They are not supposed to drive onto the trails when snow is on the ground & I have been in touch with the relevant parties trying to prevent its re-occurrence.

By Peter Thorn

Club Members To Compete at EYO

Ruaridh Newman and Michael May have been selected to compete at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival at Liberec, Czech Republic 12-19th February 2011.

Highland Nordic’s Katy Homyer is a competing in the women’s competition and  Calumn Irvine is competing both Biathlon and Cross Country. Scott Dixon appears to be following family tradition and has been selected for biathlon.

http://www.olympics.org.uk/news.aspx?GT=Invariant&NE=4607&AT=&GA=&SP=

Contgratulations to all those selected and best wishes for a successful campaign.

JDS Week 2

Atfter 11 successive JDS sessions in a row, the lack of snow forced us to have a dry land session this week. Rollerskis were back in with the smallest members on rollerblades. The extensive facilities at the centre including the downhill slope and rollerski track make running a non snow JDS possible. We are very lucky to have them, and long may they continue.

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Clash Conditions 7th January

From Colin Miller:

Evidence indicates it was a genuine attempt to check on the mobile phone generator, which isn’t running and has presumably run out of fuel. Vehicle only got two-thirds of the way up Leids Leap. The wheel tracks are a problem but the quantity and quality of snow generally allows for skiing between them or going off to the side. There are 2 problem areas where vehicle got stuck, causing complex ruts (tricky if skiing between the tracks!). At the lower of the two (between Deer Cut junction and the A941, there’s a lot of grit churned up).

Anyway, other than that, conditions today at Clashindarroch show a marked improvement as a result of Thursday’s fresh snow, which has deposited 3-9cm of powder on top of the hard frozen snow base. It has smoothed over some of the thin areas, but Range Way is still not really skiable. The road at Picadilly Circus is now OK however, and Tuesday’s bare patch at the foot of the hill on the Haute Route was skiable today. Some of the skiing was magic. Temperature stayed at -4/-3C.
and sunny all day.

Car park has a thin carpet of crisp snow over the underlying ice. Gritting lorry went up the Aberdeenshire side of the A9