I had a great day on it last summer with Stu, Steve, Baker, Campbell and Victoria – with Ian tagging along as photographer/shuttle bitch. Here are some of his snaps (all photo credit to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ian-McDougall-Photography/196231783756155?sk):

Myself going for the flare on the drop just below Randolph's

Steve doing his thang on one of the bimbles

Stu on the middle drop of Triple

And boofing the bottom of it

Myself going for the boof on the last drop of Triple Step

Baker stuck at the bottom of Triple - just as well given the look on his face peering down into the hole!

Steve skirting a big hole on the entrance to Corkscrew

Following the tongue through to finish the move

And being rad

Cambell pretending to be a submarine on the entrance move of Corkscrew

Me coming through the middle of Corkscrew

Then riding the waves through the exit

Myself running the entry falls

Awkward scouting...

G-Ram boofing the entrance falls

Luke being a douche on the siphon/constriction mess of a rapid

Brodie boofing

Joe in the siphon/construction mess, a pretty awkward portage too

Me on Tea Cup Falls

Gregseh getting his boof on

Watch Matt’s carnage filled video of the weekend here (includes some of the Findhorn Gorge)

Joe went first, fluffed the entry, and proceeded to take the comedy line down the middle:

LOL!

I took the ‘pussy option’ (aka, The Line):

Then Titch stepped up in her playboat, getting some good downtime in the process:

Quick video of myself (thanks Ian McDougall Photography):

Seats down, duvets out, curl up and 'enjoy' a night of mild cramp and light sleep...

Lots of bicycles in Amsterdam...

Trixi posing by a canal in Amsterdam

Bruges was the main highlight of the trip, so much that we spent two days there, and another on the return journey. The tour of the Brugse Zot (Brugian Fool) beer distillery was excellent, and led by the fattest, jolliest and most enthusiastic man I’ve ever met – the free pint afterwards was also one of the best I’ve tasted! Here’s a few pictures from this beautiful historic city:

A Breakfast of imported KrispyKreme doughnuts in the Minnewater gardens

Sampling the local brew in a sunny streetside cafe

Bad-ass chocolate dragon

Darker Stronger Brugse Zot? Yes please!

Tempted by the ace fish market

Unfortunately, with both of us being tax-dodging students, we couldn’t afford to eat or stay in the city, so we drove to a nearby beach for a swim and picnic dinner.

Did someone say... SHARK?!

Fresh bread, cold meat and camembert, washed down with cool white wine... Tasty!

Unluckily our later plans to sneak into a campsite under cover of darkness were foiled, so we ended up sleeping in the car again, in a public car park just back from the beach, before being woken up at 6am by two irate (and non-English-speaking) Belgian policemen… Still, at least we made the ferry on time!

Back in early March I had some of the best skiing this season (and actually, ever). The snowclouds moved down the Inn valley and got trapped against the Nordkette mountain wall, dumping their entire snowload – powder time! The first day was a real suprise. Trixi had gone to uni, and as it looked cloudy up the hill I had a lie in before going up for a ski, and was delighted to find 20cms of fresh and the mountain to myself. Ripping up one of the lower altitude ski routes I bumped into one of the local instructors, so we teamed up for the afternoon. The next day passed similarly with another 20cms, but Saturday was the big one with another 30cms of snow on top of the previous days. Absolutely great day of fresh tracks with Trixi and Geli, with some amazing runs down the upper couloirs.

With fresh snow Nordkette is a truly awesome ski area. It might be small with only one real piste, but it has really epic offpiste, with the couloirs down from the top being particularly special. With a bit of imagination for lines you can find skiing to suit whatever mood you’re in – big open faces, steep tight chutes or fun jibby lines through the trees and bushes.

Me offpiste at Nordkette, photo Geli Feldbacher

Back in Aberdeen snowmelt in the cairngorms gave a welcome boost to river levels, and I enjoyed some particular good runs down a high water N’Esk and a humping Dee – big waves and powerful holes galore.

Me on Triple, photo Sandy Niven

Me on the lead in to Fishladder, photo Matt Witz

Fish, by Matt Witz

Me missing the boof, by Sandy Niven

Dissappearing in the hole (you can just seen my paddle), by Matt Witz

...and backlooping, by Matt Witz

Over the Easter holidays it was time to head back out the mountains, but this time my family and Trixi’s parents were due to join us. Before Trixi’s parents arrived we spent a few days in Westendorf (where my family were based). I absolutely love Westendorf, I’ve spent lots of holidays there in the past, so it was great to go back, see the Hotel Glockenstuhl staff and ski my favourite runs – not to mention spend some time with my parents and sister.

Me carving down KiWest, photo by Trixi Loeschenberger

It was a very different atmosphere to whenever I’ve been there before, so quiet, mellow and chilled out – almost empty of punters. Very green too with the snow melting, but lots of fun slushy bumps to ski. We were surprised with some fresh snow too!

Me in the pow, glad for 'local' knowledge, by Trixi

Trixi ripping up the short turns

Photo by Trixi

Later in the holidays we stayed over in Kirchberg with Trixi’s parents, Berti and Fanni. Again blessed with more suprise fresh snow we had some great skiing. Kitzbuhel has easy access to lots of fun mellow offpiste, and when the freshies runs out there’s lots of slushy bumps to play in. I was a little dissapointed with the Hahnenkamm though. Yeah you’d have to be mental to ski it at the speeds the downhill racers do, but even the proper route (which is undeservedly marked as an ‘extreme’ offpiste route on the map), although fairly steep,  isn’t particularly difficult.

My sister Hollie at the start of the Hahnenkamm, by Fanni Loeschenberger

Bertie and Fanni synchronised, by Trixi

When we got back to Innsbruck the snow was so sticky on the south facing Nordkette slopes it just wasn’t worth skiing, so we enjoyed a fair few beers in the sun at the Schirmbar at the bottom of the slopes, and paid a visit to the Alpenzoo!

On 9th April my Grandad, Professor Matthew Aitken Clark OBE, one-time head of Architecture and planning at the University of South Carolina, retired Chief Executive of the Norfolk Broads Authority and heavily involved in Europarc, sadly passed away after a short fight with cancer.  RIP Grandad, you’ll be missed.

My Grandad and Dad in Turkey last summer

Trixi came over for two weeks, so I took her along on a club trip on the Dee, which was her first real whitewater experience.

Gotta love old club kit - Trixi suited and booted

With no swims at all, even on the grade 3 Invercannie rapid, she did really well, and didn’t even complain about the cold once! The day was only marred slightly by some abuse form a grmpy fisherman, who wasn’t even fishing! I thought I’d escaped all that agro when coming up to Scotland!

The next day some of the club paddled the North Esk, which is one of the classic East Coast rivers. This was the first time I’d got round to paddling it, and I gather levels were on the low side of medium. I’d been previously told that it was a good grade 4 trip, and heard it described as Scotland’s version of the Upper Dart – but it really isn’t. It’s a nice and fun river, but (at the levels we had anyway) there were only really two grade 4 rapids, and it was more pool drop than the Dart. Still, it’s an excellent paddle if you’re in the area, just possibly a little overhyped. Maybe with more water it would become more continuous at the grade.

The first grade four is Triple Step (or Rocks of Solitude, depending on who you listen to). Consisting of three drops with noticeable stoppers in between, the last hole is especially meaty. Only four of us ran it, and two ended up spending some upside down time in the last hole, with Nomad power seeing me and Gregseh through fine.

Me disappearing in the bottom hole of Triple, pic by Sandy Niven

Even with Nomad power I narrowly avoid backlooping back into the hole, pic by Sandy Niven

Just downstream from Triple lies Presidents Corner (apparently named after several club Presidents had a simultaneous swim there). It’s an awkward rapid with a tight move over a drop and simultaneously round a corner, which saw my first capsise since coming upto Scotland, with a faceplant into a rockshelf after catching an edge on a crosscurrent. No roll needed, but I sustained a couple of scrapes on my nuckles pushing myself upright.

The second grade 4, Fishladder, is much nicer than it looks. An 8 foot(ish) drop, the right side leads to a world of pain in a boily, surging and recirculating eddy, whilst a kicker halfway down river left gives you a perfect ski jump over the hole and out through a narrow exit. Fairly intimidating to look at, it’s pretty fluffy when you run it as long as you make the right line.

Me hitting the kicker on Fishladder, pic by Sandy Niven

Last weekend saw some more Dee action, with very low levels due to masochistically cold temperatures. Did I say I love my drysuit?! With the top six inches of water in the process of freezing over, the river resembled a slush puppy in the current, whilst the eddies were frozen so solidly you could walk on them! Gnarly!

Unfortunately, even with the bumper snow season, I still haven’t managed to get any Scottish skiing in yet. Still, with all the paddling recently, I can’t complain too much.

My journey out proved rather eventful. With 20cms of snow predicted in London, allthough the drive down wasn’t quite as bad as expected, my flight from Gatwick was, suprise suprise, delayed. Luckily I managed to get another out the next day, after crashing in a nearby hotel for the night.

Ski Touring, photo by Trixi Loeschenberger

To start the holidays off we had a few days skiing around Innsbruck. We spent most of the time up Nordkette (the area just next to Trixi’s flat), with one day at Igls, which I hadn’t been to for years. I tried ski touring for the first time, with my new Marker Baron bindings. Hard work (especially as I have a pretty heavy set up with my Big Troubles), but I think it will come in very useful later on for accessing better offpiste lines. We didn’t have any new snow while we were there, but on one warmer day the old snow softened up a bit, and offered some good sport offpiste at Nordkette.

Me at Nordkette, photo by Trixi Loeschenberger

When Trixi headed home for a few days over Christmas, I went on to Saalbach, where we were going to work for a week with the Furstauer Ski School to get some much needed money. On the night I arrived the Thurm bar was hosting a ‘start-of-the-season party’ for many of the resort workers, which was a great way to catch up with friends from last season, many of whom were back either for the season or just for a few weeks over Christmas.

For the first few days before starting work I was able to just ski aorund, re-familiarising myself with the area. Conditions weren’t ideal to start with, with warm temperatures and patchy snow. On two days it rained down at resort level, which luckily brought some fresh snow up top, and I had fun playing on the Schattberg. The second time it rained/snowed was Christmas day, and I had an awesome Christmas present in the form of fresh knee deep powder on Bernkogel, which was better than I expected! The chairlift up to the top for repeat runs wasn’t so enjoyable in the blizzard though, it takes so long! I’m looking forward to when the new gondola gets built there next season! The snow came just in time, as Trixi arrived on Boxing Day.

Furstauer ski instructors on New Years Eve, photo: Erick de Boer

New Years Eve was excellent. All the ski and snowboard instructors in Saalbach got together to do a (flaming) torch lit descent by the Turm lift for the punters (I’ve got wax all over my skis now), followed by fireworks and free beer. After a few drinks later on in Bobby’s we headed back to the slopes for the 12 o’clock countdown. Absolute mayhem – muchos champagne, and hundreds of people armed with fireworks made for a fun (if a little scary) time. Obviously, the night finished in Castellos’s!

Me enjoying the powder, Photo by Trixi Loeschenberger

Rather conveniently my  group were too hungover to ski on New Years Day, so I had the day off to go skiing in the bluebird sunshine! Myself, Trixi, Jonas and Sina headed over to Hinterglemm for the day, which was our last in Saalbach (this time!). Getting up early the following morning it soon became clear that it had absolutely dumped it down overnight, so we found time to squeeze in one quick powder run down the side of Bernkogel before leaving to visit Trixi’s Aunt, Uncle, Mum and Dad at her Grandfather’s, near Salzburg. Absolutely beautiful, so we went for a long walk round his land in the snow.

Trixi's Grandfather's farmhouse

We left the day afterto go back to Innsbruck, as Trixi’s university term started again. Whilst she was out during the day, I went skiing at Nordkette, which is a great little playground, with some excellent offpiste. I skied my first ‘no fall zone’ (where to fall would put your life in serious danger) – an extremely steep and narrow couloir, which I did solo! Although I was quite nervous dropping in, I skied it ok and came out the bottom safely.

At the top of Nordkette, with a significant drop down to Innsbruck behind me - that's where I skied the 'no fall zone.' Photo by Trixi Loeschenberger

On my last day of the holidays we headed over to Ischgl to ski something that wasn’t Nordkette for a change! I’d been to Ischgl about two years before, so I took Trixi down the ‘Smuggler’s Run’ to Samnaun in Switzerland for lunch at an excellent restaurant. Although the light was a bit flat we had a good day, Ischgl is a cool resort.

Trixi about to ski over to Switzerland

Now I’m back in Aberdeen in the middle of my exams, so wish me luck! I managed a fun revision break the other day with the Uni Canoe Club, with a paddle down a very low and very cold South Esk. I think I may have to invest in a pair of neoprene pogies soon, to keep my hands warm!

Unfortunately the early snow that had fallen at the start of November had melted, so our only option was the Stubaier glacier, which did not disapoint. I’ve been there twice before (both times in february), yet this was the best snow I’ve seen there. All the pistes were in great condition, and we found some soft snow offpiste, albeit mixed in with breakable crust and icy crud.I’d forgotten how high the glacier is. I believe the highest lift, at 3200-and-something metres is the highest in Tirol?

Looking down from 3200 metres...

We took a little time out to visit the Chriskindl market (basically Christmas market), which was ace. Lots of delicious Austrian food and drink, kasekrainer, krapferl, punsch, gluhwein, chocoerdbeer… mmm! A chance for a bit of Christmas shopping too.

Brass band players serenading the crowds by the Christmas tree

Hopefully when I’m back in two weeks for my Christmas holidays from uni there’ll be more snow so we can access the steep offpsite routes and touring potential from the Nordkette area, right next to Trixi’s flat.

Snow clouds rolling in over the Nordkette ski area

We hit the Orchy at good flows on the Saturday, around 2.5 on the gauge as we got on and rising throughout the day. It’s an awesome river, not particularly hard – it never really tops grade 4 (apart form the two grade 5′s, particularly at the second), and is just fun fairly continous read and run rapids. It is a big volume river by UK standards though, and a couple of the rapids have some eally nice powerful moves, with big waves and holes to boof. The run-out of  ‘End of Civilisation’ is particularly fun, the wave train had me in giggles, as big and bouncy as… well, a pair of Katie Price’s possessions, but much cleaner… Unfortunately I had more camera troubles, so I don’t have any photos.

On the Sunday we decided to hit either the Spean Gorge or the Upper Roy, with the preference being the Roy – rapids of the class of ‘Wish You Were Here’ are just too tempting. On the drive, the Spean looked to be stonking, so we had good hopes of high enough water levels for the Roy. Alas, it was not to be, the river was dog low. Running out of time (with the drive back to Aberdeen in mind), and wary of the killer siphon in the gorge section, we put on the Lower Roy instead.

Although very low and pretty damn easy, the lower Roy turned out to be a fairly fun paddle. The first couple of rapids were stupidly scrapey, but as soon as the walls closed in a bit things improved. All the rapids ran at an easy but pleasant grade 2, with ample opportunuty to practise boofs, flares, grinds and spins on and off rocks. Definitely a very good option for a beginner group (indeed, Edinburgh uni had some beginners out on the day), with another foot and a half of water the river would get much more interesting. The twisty turny grade 3 provided a wee bit of spice at the end.