The rise and fall of Scotland’s first ‘hike and ride’ ski & snowboard contest

Almost exactly ten years ago, on 11 April 2015, a little bit of Scottish skiing and snowboarding history took place on the slopes of 1,044m Meall nan Tarmachan, on the north shore of Loch Tay. After attending an early morning safety briefing beside the Lochan na Lairighe reservoir, a group of 19 athletes packed up their gear, crossed over the Lawers Dam and struck out into uncharted contest territory.

Competitors cross the Lawers Dam on their wat to the first Lawers of Gravity freeride event in 2015 | Roger Cox / The Scotsman

At this point, the Scottish Freedom Series (SFS) – Scotland’s first ever competitive freeride tour – was still very much in its infancy. For its inaugural season, in 2014, it had consisted of four events, all of them held in steep, unpisted terrain, but in locations adjacent to major ski centres: Cairngorm, Glencoe, Glenshee and Nevis Range. This meant that, while the contest faces where the action took place – the Flypaper at Glencoe, say, or the Back Corries at Nevis – still offered a challenging backcountry environment, with plenty of natural features to launch aerial manoeuvres off and take-it-as-you-find-it snow conditions, the skiers and boarders taking part could still use ski lifts to access the start gates before their runs, and in case of emergency casualties could be evacuated using existing ski area infrastructure.

For the 2015 season, however, in addition to these events SFS organiser Iain Ramsay-Clapham had set his sights on something more ambitious: a true, hike and ride backcountry contest for which competitors would be required to journey together on foot to a steep, remote section of mountainside located several miles from the nearest road, let alone the nearest ski lift.

As a blizzard begins, competitors make their way to the contest face on Meall nan Tarmachan for the inaugural Lawers of Gravity freeride ski and snowboard event in 2015. | Roger Cox / The Scotsman

As its name suggested, the Lawers of Gravity was to be held in the mountains that make up the Ben Lawers Range, just to the north-east of Killin. Depending on where the best snow conditions were to be found, the competition could be held on any of the hills in the area, and on the day, Meall nan Tarmachan was selected as the best option.

The weather forecast was marginal, with snow showers expected in the morning, not to mention 40-55mph winds, and as the competitors slogged their way up the lower slopes of the mountain and heavy, swirling snow reduced visibility to only a few metres, some of them must have wondered if the event would be able to go ahead.

In the end, however, luck was on their side: by the time the competitors had reached the chosen contest site, about two-thirds of the way up the mountain, the snow had stopped, the wind had died down and the sun was starting to poke through the clouds. A spectacular day of competition followed, with Tarmachan’s maze-like topography allowing the athletes to get endlessly creative with their choice of line, and in the pub that evening, participants weren’t just raving about the terrain and the quality of the snow, but also about the sense of camaraderie fostered by the communal hike in and out.

Dave Biggin competing in the 2015 Lawers of Gravity event | Roger Cox / The Scotsman

The Lawers of Gravity ran again in 2016, this time in even better conditions and with the contest area extended to include a steeper section close to the summit, and it also ran in 2018. However, although nobody could have predicted it at the time, that 2018 event may now prove to be the final one.

Following the inevitable cancellations of the Covid years, then further cancellations in 2022 and 2023 due to lack of snow, Ramsay-Clapham commissioned an external safety assessment of the event – and realised that, for legal reasons, the Lawers of Gravity and contests like it probably won’t be able to happen again.

Katie Small competing in the Lawers of Gravity event in the Ben Lawers Range - part of the Scottish Freedom Series in 2016 | Roger Cox / The Scotsman

“Your insurance validity comes from following best practice around the delivery of an event,” he says, “and within the rules of delivering an event there are all sorts of requirements – one of these is risk assessments, another one is a medical plan.

“Our challenge with going into really remote locations is that, if the medical plan is not robust and doesn’t demonstrate that a casualty at the event can reach critical care within a reasonable timeframe, then you have to elect not to run that event in that location.

“If you have a casualty high up on a Munro, and you don’t have an assured helicopter lift, getting a casualty packaged and taken down to road level can be a really challenging affair, particularly if conditions aren’t in your favour. We have looked into helicopter lift assurance, but in the UK it’s just not something that’s easily arranged for that sort of event. And even if you could arrange it, it makes the cost of the delivery of the event so high it almost precludes people from considering it.”

Robbie Paton competes in the 2016 Lawers of Gravity | Roger Cox / The Scotsman

So, unless some ski or snowboard-loving high net worth individual steps in and offers to hire the SFS a helicopter rescue team, that’s probably the last we’ll see of the Lawers of Gravity. Still, Just because it’s reached the end of the road, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth celebrating. It was a bold idea, brilliantly executed, which showcased the huge potential for running freeride events in remote Scottish locations. And who knows? A few years from now, perhaps someone will figure out a way of bringing it back.

For more on the Scottish Freedom Series, see www.britishfreeride.org/scottish-freedom-series