Sunday 15th Feb 09 - Had a good training week although travel with work did ristrict some of my plans. Did an off road 20 miler on Saturday morning which went well. My wife Lucy did her first 5km race in Preston on the Sunday in a great time - well done! More kit purchases this week, I'm going to keep the Arctic grade gloves from ebay even if they do look a little large..(as modelled by my eldest!)

Wed 4th Feb - Myself and Iain drive to Aviemore in the highlands to camp in a layby towards the ski area that we have used in the past. When we arrived at 2am the road out of Aviemore was covered in 6" of snow so we had no choice to sleep in the car in Aviemore!

Thursday 5th Feb - Snow ploughs had part cleared the road to the ski area but the gate was closed half way up. We parked up and set off up the road with sleds in tow 4 miles from our intended start point.

We had kit packed for 2 days in the hills in bad weather but it soon became evident that there was no point in leaving the snow covered road. Good training was had up to the the ski car park but off the tarmac 2 feet (!) of powder snow made progress close to impossible. A return to the car completed our 4 hr training outing, the sledges being destroyed on the return journey as the ploughs had all but cleared the road.

Many lessons learnt. The 2 sleds that we had purposely designed and built the attachment and towing system differently to check their performance had both worked very well.

2 large coffees later we checked in to a hotel and headed out for food and a few beers.


Friday 6th Feb - Following a quick visit to a remote graveyard in the Rothymurcus estate on route to our start point to visit the grave of the first Shaw (Ians great, great... grandfather from the 1200's). We parked up at the North end of a long low lying valley in the hope that the snow would be less deep, it had snowed another 5" overnight in what is the most snow fallen in many years. I parked the car on the edge of the road to give us the best chance of getting back to Aviemore if the snow continued to fall, we hoped the ploughs would keep the road open.

Conditions were superb and the going good. The route followed a river and meandered South in to the Western Cairngorms. Iain left his sled behind and I towed our kit and food. All kit performed well and I was able to cover several miles in both the micro spick's on the frozen road section and then the racing snow-shoes as we climbed further in to the hills.

We hoped to visit a local Bothy or stone shelter for lunch but a snow covered part collapsed bridge prevented that. A very good day out, 16 miles in 6 hours.

The weekend continued well with 2 days with my brothers in Edinburgh to watch the 6 Nations international Rugby in Edinburgh.