Scotland’s best backcountry skiers and boarders prepare to take on the Corrie Challenge

Thanks to the admirable professionalism of storms Ciara and Dennis, the last couple of weeks have felt like one long, apocalyptic weather event, but things finally look set to calm down a bit this weekend, and the skiers and snowboarders of the Scottish Freedom Series (SFS) are hoping to take full advantage.

A skier dropping into Backtrack in the Back Corries at Nevis Range. PIC: Stevie McKenna / ski-scotland

Scotland’s own freeride tour has already suffered one cancellation this year: it was due to kick off on 8 and 9 February with the Lawers of Gravity event in the Ben Lawers hills in Perthshire, but although a recce revealed plenty of snow, series organiser Iain Ramsay-Clapham of Snowsport Scotland was forced to pull the plug due to dangerously strong winds – a decision he describes as “hugely frustrating.”


This weekend, however, the forecast is for relatively calm conditions and Ramsay-Clapham says he is “pretty confident” the second contest in the series, the Corrie Challenge at Nevis Range, will go ahead as planned, with competitors looking to find the most creative, challenging lines possible in the steep, unpisted area of the resort known as the Back Corries.


That said, there might have to be a change of competition zone this year.


“For the last couple of years we’ve held the event in Summit Gully,” says Ramsay-Clapham, “but this year it will probably have to move to the area below Nid Ridge, possibly to [the run called] G&Ts.”


This change is mostly to do with ensuring the safety of the competitors. Because the prevailing winds tend to blow snow across the summit plateau of Aonach Mor and into the wide open bowl of the Back Corries, cornices often develop at the top of the runs. (Indeed, one of the highlights of recent Corrie Challenges has been watching competitors launching themselves off these icy diving boards as they begin their descents.) However, according to Jeff Starkey, head of the Nevis Range ski patrol, the gales of recent weeks have created much larger cornices than usual, so the less corniced entry to Nid Ridge area, which has a slightly different orientation, should be a safer bet.


Summit Gully has seen some spectacular skiing and boarding in recent Corrie Challenges, and, while the slopes around Nid Ridge might not be quite as dramatic, there are still plenty of interesting rocky outcrops for contestants to incorporate into their runs. Ramsay-Clapham believes a bit of variety will be a positive thing for the series, too, as a big part of the art of freeriding is figuring out how best to match your skills to different types of terrain.


There are other advantages to using the slopes around Nid Ridge, too, not least the fact that it will make it easier for competitors to get back to the ski lifts on the other side of the mountain; Summit Gully may be beautiful to look at, but it’s fairly remote – Ramsay-Clapham reckons it was taking some competitors almost an hour to get back to the top of the gully after their practice runs last time which, by any reckoning, is a fair old commute.


At time of going to press, the forecast for today was for light winds and overcast skies, and if the clag descends and visibility becomes an issue, there is a back-up plan to hold the Corrie Challenge tomorrow instead, when it seems sunny spells and sporadic snow showers are likely to be the order of the day.


Spectators tend to be few and far between at SFS contests which is a shame, because by any objective measure they must surely be among the most dramatic sporting events taking place anywhere in Scotland.


Scotland’s first ever freeride ski and board contest, the Coe Cup, was held on Glencoe’s fearsome Flypaper back in 2012,  and the first time there was a proper series with multiple events was 2014, when there were contests at Cairngorm, Nevis Range and Glenshee as well as Glencoe. This year there are only three events, the cancelled Lawers of Gravity, the Corrie Challenge and then the Coe Cup on 21 March, with a grand final, also at Glencoe, on 22 March.


In contrast to, say, downhill racing, where the goal is simply to hammer down a pre-determined course as quickly as possible, in freeriding, skiers can pick any line they like between a start gate at the top of a designated contest zone and a finish gate at the bottom; the aim isn’t to be the fastest down, but to ride the available terrain with style and skill. It’s skiing and snowboarding as an art form, in other words, a test of how well competitors are able to read and respond to the mountain. Anyone heading up to Nevis Range this weekend should mosey on over to Nid Ridge and check out the action. 



www.scottishfreedomseries.co.uk