This has been one of the best Scottish winters in living history! This week alone we have had blue sky perfect conditions followed by over 3ft of fresh powder dropping. It has been perfect for skiing and all the winter programme although yesterday and today has called on all our instructors to be creative with how they use so much snow!

The snow plough has been going full time to keep the road clear although some of our guests would cleraly like the opportunity to be trapped here in this winter wonderland. Some of the instructor team stayed over to make sure they could get in for the last day of their five day courses and helped to make sure the bar takings were not falling behind.

These shots show the variety of conditions in one week here in the Cairngorms.

posted by glenmore @ 3:39 pm  1 comments

Uplift Scotland is aiming to run uplifts almost every weekend!!

Just in from Tally, “Uplift Scotland are aiming to run uplifts almost every weekend throughout 2010. Bookings will only open 6 weeks before the uplift, this is to allow events to still take place at the venues. We will endeavour to give as much notice as possible to any weekends that will be events not uplifts. Once bookings open the uplift will definitely run. Go to www.upliftscotland.com for more details!”

Rob

Alpine Bikes

Innerleithen

posted by glenmore @ 2:47 pm  0 comments

“IMPORTANT RACE INFORMATION – CHANGE OF DATE Due to Forestry Enterprise double booking Pitfichie Forest we have had to change the date of the first round at Pitfichie to the 24th/25th April, one week later. We sincerely apologize, we booked our date some time ago and Forest Enterprise acknowledge this but the Granite Rally is using the forest on the same dates and unfortunately we are lower in the pecking order.

Why the FCS accepted our booking last December we don’t know. Anyway, we have to change because both events cannot run at the same time.

We are now racing at Pitfichie the following weekend APRIL 24-25

Sorry about this, but it was out of our hands. We realise that this new date clashes with an SXC round, but we cannot swap venues on the original date. We can only offer our apologies to those who are inconvenienced.

Derek”

posted by glenmore @ 2:47 pm  0 comments

Sponsored by Alpine Bikes, Buff, Trek, Fox clothing and Borderline Events

After the unfortunate cancellation of round 1, Round 2 of the Alpine bikes winter Series race took place at the weekend. As the name suggests it’s a winter race and the weather definitely kept it’s end of the bargain, with an overnight low of -15 and -7 showing on my car on Sunday morning.

The track at first appeared to be a bit sketchy and some big names decided that rather than risk a pre season injury, they’d watch from the comfort of the side. As the end results proved, the brave would win spectacularly. Total entries for the event were over 300 but only 203 raced, which at least kept proceedings a bit shorter.

Don’t get us wrong, there were some quite spectacular crashes, and our local A & E department will undoubtedly have been grumbling about the number of biking injuries (one of the consultants thinks mountain biking should be banned), but at least we’re not dying of heart attacks on our couches!

As I say some of the winners did it with great style.

Lewis Buchannan, his first ride as a junior goes and beats the field by 14 seconds on a borrowed bike from us. Lewis beat all comers last year, and looks set to do it again this year – if you want to sponsor a highly talented rider, this is your chance. He’s a great ambassador for the sport and is worthy of the attention.

Lewis’ 14 second gap is impressive, but Alpine Bikes Sponsored rider, Joe Connell took a further 3 seconds from that, taking the youth win by 17 seconds over Stuart Wilcox with Gregor Notman in 3rd. Who says there was no grip to exploit out there? As I say victory was for the brave (or insane).

Juvenille class was won by Niall Morrison, Dan Farley in 2nd place with Frazer McCubbing in 3rd.

The hardtail category (big respect to these guys, especially on an icy course) was won by Steve Larking with Stuart Black in second place and taking 3rd spot on the podium was Tom Cleave (who’s forks snapped in practice and were replaced by us overnight to keep him riding).

Masters category was won by Daz Westwood, Sion Jones in 2nd place just in front of Erland Mowat in 3rd.

In the vets class Pete Hoggan was the victor over Stevie Boyd with Seb Ramsay in 3rd.

Unfortunately for Harriet Latchem riding in a field of one meant all she had to do was get down the hill to win the Elite women’s, but her time did put some men to shame, which has got to be some consolation.

Bex Reilly took the women’s win,from Angela Coates with Mairi Gillis in 3rd. Mairi was riding her new BOS Idyll forks for the first time in anger and reckons they were awesome, which is good as we sold them to her! Her view on the forks when she came in was “They’re amazing”.

In expert riders, it was Alasdair Maclennan with the second fastest time of the day that took the win over Dale Russell with Eliot Machin in 3rd place.

It was a fantastic day, and again thanks to the following sponsors:

BUFF
FOX CLOTHING
TREK BIKES

And of course, BORDERLINE EVENTS, for organizing the whole thing and more importantly, getting the first round in at the pub on Saturday.
3 weeks till the next one, and we’re all hoping to have slightly better weather and more people down the hill.

Rob
Alpine Bikes
Innerleithen

posted by glenmore @ 12:08 pm  0 comments

When the weather's like it was this weekend there is no where better to be! Forget the alps, go to the cairngorms! Saturday and Sunday had to be one of the most spectacular weekends I have ever seen up here. The hills were plastered in snow and ice, we had blue skies, sunshine and no wind!

The weather is set to continue like this for the next few days at least so what are you waiting for?!

Here's a couple of photos from sticil face on Shelterstone, taken on Sunday the 21st of February.

posted by glenmore @ 12:43 pm  0 comments

Fred and Dougie set off to paddle Up a Long Creek in the
freezing cold for Sport Relief


A stand-up comedian and a drummer in a rock band sitting in a boat sounds like the set-up to a joke. But Fred MacAulay and Dougie Vipond are about to put mind, body and reputation on the line by taking on the biggest challenge of their lives in aid of Sport Relief 2010 – traversing the length of the Caledonian Canal, from Fort William to Inverness in a tandem kayak.

At 8am on Monday 22nd February, with temperatures due to be below freezing, Fred and Dougie will set off on their extraordinary journey. Before them lies three days of extreme paddling right across the heart of the Scottish Highlands, through some of the world’s harshest wilderness landscape. This is a seriously difficult undertaking. Rising to the Sport Relief challenge, there will be no glamorous entourage, no frills and absolutely no creature comforts. They will be literally thrown in at the deep end, going back to basics carrying all of their own food, drink and equipment required for the duration of the trip. They will be camping at the waters edge and cooking for themselves whilst attempting to keep up the motivation to get through a challenge that would be extraordinarily tough in the bright summer months let alone in one of the coldest winters in history.

Taking to the water near the west coast at the top of the world famous Neptune’s Staircase, the cross-country trip will see them having to negotiate a number of un-navigable locks along the way where the paddling pair will need to lift and carry their 25 foot long kayak in and out of man-made waterways and freshwater lochs. Fred and Dougie’s punishing schedule will involve them spending a night on the exposed shores of Loch Ness and finishing in Inverness on Wednesday evening.

The team will be accompanied by kayaking expert Neil Baxter who has given them essential technique and safety training, but it will be up to the brave duo to work together as a team to complete the challenge which will be both mentally and physically punishing.

With such a mammoth challenge ahead of them, Sport Relief is calling for people across Scotland to get behind Fred and Dougie and show their support by donating at sportrelief.com/creek. Every penny donated to Sport Relief will go to transform the lives of poor and disadvantaged people both at home in the UK and in the world’s poorest countries.

With less than three days to go until the challenge, Dougie Vipond said: “When Sport Relief asked me if I was up for a challenge, I had no idea that I would end up in the Highlands in February paddling my way through freezing cold waters with Fred MacAulay, then having to share a tent with him - but I am ready to rise to the challenge!”

Fred MacAulay added: “This will certainly be one of my greatest challenges yet, let’s just hope we don’t end up the creek without a paddle! Get behind us and show your support by sponsoring us now at sportrelief.com.”

The pair’s water borne adventures will be aired in Up a Long Creek, an hour-long documentary special for Sport Relief due to transmit on BBC Scotland on 17th March.

Fred and Dougie are rising to the challenge as part of Sport Relief 2010. You can rise to your challenge by entering the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Mile on Sunday 21st March. Glasgow is playing host to one of the largest Sport Relief Miles in the UK, with other Miles happening all over Scotland. To find and enter your nearest Mile visit sportrelief.com.
ENDS


For more information, photographs and interview requests contact:

Fiona White (Project Manager) – f.white@comicrelief.com – 07931 384 001

Elise Clayton – e.clayton@comicrelief.com or 0141 422 6847/07507 597102

posted by glenmore @ 12:06 pm  0 comments

Jim Hutton, Gary Green John Clare, Willie Hannah, Clive Wilson, Bernie Shrosbree and 6 Officer's/Marines from BRF and 45 Cdo are doing a 1000km ski across Norway in 20 days (circa 50km a day) to raise money for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund, Macmillan and CLIC Sargent. Please help to raise money for these worthwhile charities by making a donation at www.bmycharity.com/rm1000kmski

posted by glenmore @ 3:48 pm  0 comments

Ben Nevis is a special place to climb in winter. It has so much history surrounding the routes and the scale of it is relatively unique when compared with many of the popular Scottish winter venues.

Dave Chapman (Nightwatch) and Scott Webster (Marketing) headed up for a few nights inthe CIC hut with a view of doing some on the Ben's classic routes. The CIC hut was refurbished last year and now includes two toilets, a drying room and a large kitchen. It has been really nicely done and has a very alpine feel to it.

Conditions were less than ideal with a large dump of snow falling over night on Monday. This meant a lot of the classic ice routes were dangerous or too difficult to get to.

Instead Dave and Scott stuck to the ridges and climbed Tower Ridge, North East Buttress and Ledge Route. These are all classic mountaineering routes that are well worth doing and provide pleanty of interest along the way.

posted by glenmore @ 12:55 pm  0 comments

If you want to see Ian Sherrington on full screen moving pictures - watch the Adventure Show Sunday 28th Feb on BBC 2 at 7pm.

He takes the the Adventure Show team with him on one day of a five day course. See how they all get on in the Scottish winter wonderland.

The equity card is in the post Ian!

posted by glenmore @ 7:14 pm  0 comments

Just to give a bit of an update on the trail conditions in the tweed valley. There is still some snow at high levels, but most of the trails are rideable. The top of Minch moor is possibly best avoided for the next week or so as this still has a reasonable covering of snow, but all the downhill courses from the top fire road are fine. Just be aware that if it has been freezing overnight (which it quite regularly is) then there will be ice on the trails so approach with caution especially rock climbs.

Rob
Alpine Bikes
Innerleithen

posted by glenmore @ 5:12 pm  0 comments

Minister for Public Health and Sport and UCI Downhill World Champion Launch National Framework to Develop Scottish Mountain Biking

The Minister for Public Health and Sport, Shona Robison, and UCI Downhill World Champion, Steve Peat, today (10 February) launched Scotland's first framework for the sustainable development of mountain biking, at Bannerman High School in Glasgow.

To see the full story follow the link below:

Rob
Alpine Bikes
Innerleithen

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/SCU/scu/ScottishCyclingNews/20100209_National_Framework_to_Develop_Scottish_Mountain_Biking_Launch.asp

posted by glenmore @ 5:10 pm  0 comments

Dave Macleod and Andy Turner have just completed a repeat of Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith's famous "Golden Week on the Ben".

Fifty years ago to the day Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith finished a legendary week of winter climbing on Scotland's highest mountain. Throughout the week they put up new routes and hard repeats of many of the Ben's most famous and sought after routes.

Dave and Andy will be presenting footage of their week at this years Fort William Mountain Festival on Sunday the 14th of February along with a guest appearance from Jimmy Marshall himself.

List of routes:
- The Great Chimney (IV,5) 6th February 1960
- Minus Three Gully (IV,5) 7th February 1960
- Smith's Route (V,5) 8th February 1960
- Observatory Buttress (V,4) 9th February 1960
- Point Five Gully (V,5) 10th February 1960
- Piggot's Route (V,6) 12th February 1960
- Orion Direct (V,5) 13th February 1960

For more information see http://www.mountainfestival.co.uk/jimmymarshallproject.asp

posted by glenmore @ 4:25 pm  0 comments

We have just been awarded the Gold Green Tourism award! Green Tourism is Sustainable Tourism - tourism which takes into account the needs of the environment, local residents, businesses, and visitors; now and in the future.

Up until now glenmore Lodge has been at silver level and after a recent audit it has been recognised that we are now meeting the highest standards in sustainable tourism.

This award allows you to rest at ease knowing that our impact on the environment is minimal and that as a business we are committed to looking after your environment!

posted by glenmore @ 12:55 pm  0 comments

Last weekend was the Glenmore/UKClimbing/Marmot promotional weekend. We ran a competition through UKC to win a free place on a weekend winter skills course and £800 worth of Marmot clothing. The winner of the competion; Lesley-Ann Kirkland , was here at the weekend and Mick Ryan from UKC came to film it. Martin Panton from Marmot UK also came and he brought Marmot sponsored athelete Lucy Creamer and Photographer Tim Glasby along as well. The whole weekend was filmed by Mick and is currently being edited. Look out for the finished article on www.ukclimbing.com soon!

posted by glenmore @ 11:09 am  0 comments

Member of Cairngorm Biathlon & Nordic Ski Club, based here at Glenmore Lodge have been completing the British Biathlon & Nordic Ski Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany over the past two week.
Calum Irvine (15), Scott Dixon (15) and Craig Thomson (17) competed in up to 8 races over 11 days.

At the Nordic championship, Calum Irvine and Scott Dixon took first and second places in the boys’ 15km Classic, followed by another one two in the Boys’ 4.5 km pursuit race.
Craig Thomson took eighth places in the Youth Men’s 15km Classic and seventh in the Youth Men’s 7.5km pursuit race.

The boys were then joined by Mike Dixon in the Men’s 4 x 10km team relay, coming 16th out of 35 starts.
Later the same day the boys competed in a 1 km Sprint taking the top three spots.

The focus then moved onto the Biathlon Competition. The conditions for the first race were challenging with deep snow on the tracks and slight wind with the shooing range.
The boys raced in the Junior & Youth Mens 12.5 Individual Biathlon, their first every Biathlon in which they were racing against full time servicemen, the majority of whom were two or more years older then them.

There were 44 starters and results as follows:
Scott Dixon 1st - shooing 16/22
Calum Irvine 2nd - shooing 15/20
Craig Thomson 21st - shooing 14/20

Men’s 10km Sprint event, Overall result with 142 starters.
Scott Dixon 30th shooting 9/10
Calum Irvine 34th shooting 6/10

Junior &Youth Mens 10km Mass Start
Calum Irvine 2nd shooting 12/20
Scott Dixon 3rd shooting 12/20

The last day of racing was the 4 x 7.5km Relay, with 34 teams started and the team of Mike Dixon, Calum Irvine, Scott Dixon and Craig Thomson, finished 17th shooting 32/40.

Commenting on the results, six-times Olympian and former British Champion, Mike Dixon, who founded the club and is head coach said: “the boys are truly amazing. I felt that there was a lot of talent in our club but this has blown all my expectations. “

The club would like to thank Badenoch and Strathspey Sports Council, the principle and staff at Glenmore Lodge and Snowsport Scotland for their support.


A full list of competition results are available at http://www.britishbiathlon.com/pages/BritChamps2010.htm
Information on the Cairngorm Biathlon & Nordic Ski Club www.cbnsc.co.uk

posted by glenmore @ 5:47 pm  0 comments

We got E-Mailed this today at the shop and thought I'd let everyone see it.

Regards

Rob
Alpine Bikes
Innerleithen

If you would like to work as a coach for Scottish cycling or know someone who would then this could be the right opportunity for you. See websites below



http://www.sportscotland.org.uk/SiteNavigation/Jobs/TopicNavigation/Other+vacancies/Scottish+Cycling+Regional+Development+Coach.htm



http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/SCU/scu/ScottishCyclingNews/20100129_New_opportunity_with_Scottish_Cycling.asp



If you want to know what its like to work as an RDC (its magic of course) give me a call.



Cheers,



David Winton

East Region Cycling Development Coach

Tel: +447908 673219

Email: david.winton@scottishcycling.com



SCOTTISH CYCLING

Caledonia House

South Gyle

Edinburgh

EH12 9DQ



Tel: 0131 317 9704

posted by glenmore @ 1:06 pm  0 comments

Alpine winter series

The first round of our annual winter races was all set to take place last weekend. The turnout of competitors was a great 313, and practice kicked off at 8am sharp on the Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it became apparent quite early on that the top section of the course was very icy and only the very brave got down, but for most it was crashes. There were a couple of attempts to get the course, open but it was ultimately decided that for the safety of the competitors it was better not to run a race, but to run an uplift for the remainder. I hope everyone understands that this action was taken for the safety of everyone and we look forward to seeing you again in February.

Rob
Alpine Bikes
Innerleithen

posted by glenmore @ 1:06 pm  0 comments

BBC Learning is launching a brand new, multi-platform campaign to encourage individuals and families to try out a new adventure activity. By joining forces with BBC One’s Countryfile and a range of external partners, the ThrillSeeker campaign will enable people to search out exciting events taking place across the UK.
Visitors to the ThrillSeeker website at bbc.co.uk/thrillseeker, will be able to look up thousands of adventurous activities. By entering their postcode an Event Finder feature allows users to narrow down their search to reveal exciting activities taking place within their local area.
Activities are tiered according to their level of difficulty, from hiking and cycling to canyoning and kite surfing, so there really is something for all ages and abilities. Trying out a new activity doesn’t have to be expensive as most which are found using the Event Finder are free or charged at a cost recovery reduced rate. All events are organised and run by external partner organisations who are specialists in their field.
The campaign also includes the ThrillSeeker Adventure Pocket Guide which can be downloaded from bbc.co.uk/thrillseeker, requested by post and will be available at all ThrillSeeker events. The guide includes both child and family focused activity ideas for creating mini-adventures at home or within the local area. It also contains information on the benefits of getting active and adventurous.
“Recent research carried out by the BBC found people had a real desire for more adventure in their lives. It’s my avowed hope that the ThrillSeeker campaign helps people fulfil that desire by offering a wide range of free or reduced price adventures for all.” Sean Kirkegaard, Development Executive, BBC Learning Campaigns
The campaign launches on January 31st on BBC One’s Countryfile, presented by Julia Bradbury and Matt Baker.

posted by glenmore @ 11:58 am  0 comments