Well with the best snow forecast in years I received a call from friend and kitesurfer Helen Thompson who lives between Tiree and Glasgow to get my lazy butt up to Scotland for some epic snow sessions with her and Murray Aldridge.

So on getting the green light from Helen I set off from Manchester at around 6 am and was on the mountain at 12.30 not bad going I thought.

After a few hiccups about going up the mountain to take pictures (there had been a plane crash on one of the runs that weekend) We managed to get access to the slopes. We decided to stop at one of the lower stops as the weather wasnt to good. Visibility was extremely poor dropping to around 50m at times .....if we were lucky!

So building a ramp which none of us had done before was the first idea..... only a small one but with the steep drop of the mountain it was going to be interesting to see what happened.  Muz was the first one and  managed to get quite a distance before landing head first in one of the drifts lower down. Helen was a little more cautious and nearly managed to pull of a 360 which off such a small ramp was quite impressive for a first effort! however it was very difficult to see the ramp let alone use it and after an hour or so the weather had almost closed in completely. We waited for a short while but it didnt clear.

I made my way down the slopes as Helen and Muz went for a session on the slopes.

That night Helen and Murray had booked into a hotel but I wanted to test the van in cold weather. So I parked up by a lake and settled down for the night. Its definately a different type of darkness in the highlands and so quiet too the van coped well and to be honest it wasnt as cold as I had expected!

 The next morning I awoke to another snowfall ..... not much about 2 inches on the road. The view from the van door was amazing. 

Back on the slopes again the weather still looked a little dodgey. Going slighty further up the slope I carried my gear in knee to waits deep powder ........ lovely ..... traipsing through that depth of snow with 30kg of camera gear on your back is not easy work.

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I dug myself in to a spot where Helsy and Muz would come by and waited. They had decided to go from top to bottom to get the best of the runs which meant I had to wait quite a while for them to appear over the horizon and through the mist!

After a few runs we decided that I should go to the top, the weather was clearing and the scenery would make a much better backdrop for the images.

At the top the ski lifts were very busy, so was the funicular and there were lots of people around. We managed to get some scenic type shots and one or two fun shots too. There was also a guy with a small para glider and ski's  attempting to get it airbourne but there wasn't quite enough wind.  

 The camera bag was again getting heavy so we made our way down the mountain after a truely awesome 2nd day.

We had one more day left ...well half a day Muz had to be at the airport later that evening and it was around a 3.5 hour drive from the mountain. So getting up early again we were on the slopes bright and early. The weather wasn't as good as the day before and the mist had rolled in once again. However on a plus side they had opened up parts of the slider park and we decided to head that way.

Now with two riders who haven't used sliders before on snow this was gonna be fun! However both of them proved to be better than we all thought managing to do a few frontsides and 180's and 360's of the slider.

With the conditions improving we reluctantly head down the mountain for the last time looking over our shoulders at the perfect conditions .

Who needs to go abroad with snow like that !!!