Ski touring The Fara – a Corbett in the Scottish Highlands

I headed off for a winter adventure with Hubby G to ski tour The Fara, a Corbett in the Scottish Highlands. I wrote an article for The Scots Magazine.

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Ski tour of The Fara

Sometimes there is too much choice in Scotland’s huge outdoors playground – and as G and I looked at the ground at the start of our ski touring location, we questioned our decision.

The snow was at least a week old, there were many visible clumps of heather and, while we welcomed the sun, it revealed patches of glistening ice.

However, thanks to our wide experience of Scottish winter pursuits, we believed the mountain, The Fara, still had potential for a great ski touring trip.

Up ahead, the slopes and high bulk of The Fara looked to be well clad in thick snow. The air was also still and the surroundings were very peaceful.

We started the outing on a wide track, heading west, from the side of the A899, just north of Dalwhinnie.

The ascent of The Fara on skis

At first, the snow was patchy on the stoney trail, but within 100 metres, it thickened and we found we were making speedy progress on a gentle uphill gradient through forestry.

Touring skis – also known as back-country skis – have become an increasingly popular option for skiers. They offer a much greater versatility compared to “downhill only” skis and avoid the need for mechanical uplift, such as by gondola or chairlift.

Traction on snowy slopes is provided by “skins”, which are long strips of fabric attached to the base of the skis. Ski boots unclip at the heels so that tourers can step-slide forwards, while also pushing with the aid of hand-held ski poles.

In Scotland, touring skis offer an amazing freedom to journey to many places, including hills and mountains, that people might walk in the warmer seasons. On skis, the pace is often faster than on foot, too.

After around half a mile, the track met a fence line and we spotted the ski lines of someone else. We checked the map to confirm they headed in the right direction and then happily jumped into the tracks already formed. It’s often easier to ski where others have been before.

Sadly, at the end of the fence, the ski tracks mysteriously disappeared and G and I were left to take it in turns to break trail on a steeper slope.

The snow was becoming thicker, but there were still occasional bulges of soft heather that caught the front tip of our skis if we weren’t paying attention. Several times, one of us was thrown off balance but the landing was always soft so it was more comical than frustrating.

Scottish skiing is rarely straightforward and requires good technical skills, fitness and an ability to see the funny side when conditions are far from perfect.

Yet, for most of the climb, we found the going relatively easy and we could ski mostly straight uphill. A few times we stopped to catch our breath and we enjoyed the ever expanding views of a stunning white landscape.

Just below the summit ridge, the gradient increased and we swapped to zig-zagging, to and fro across the slope, to maintain momentum uphill.

We were the only people – and our tracks created simple lines on an otherwise untouched blanket of snow.

There is a large cairn on the wide summit of The Fara and, a little further south, high slabs of rock where the true top is measured. These were covered in huge clusters of snowy-ice.

At 910m, the mountain is just shy of being a Munro and instead sits in the list of 222 Corbetts.

Views and sunshine at the summit

G and I stopped for a while to sit in the winter sun, sipping sweet tea f and eating flapjack. The vista included numerous mountain peaks and we identified those of Ben Alder in the south-west and Creag Meagaidh to the west. Far below, we saw the waters of Loch Ericht.

It’s possible to continue along the ridge for a couple of miles south-west, but we knew the weather was forecast to change and we chose a shorter descent, similar to our outward journey.

Ski descent on The Fara

This was the part of the adventure we have been looking forward to. After removing the skins, then carefully skiing windswept and icy snow higher up, we came across the most perfect powder snow on an eastern flank. Laughing with delight, we carved beautiful arc after arc for a couple of hundred metres.

It was so good that when we stopped, coming together to talk excitedly about the conditions, we decided it would be worth reattaching the skins to return back uphill so we could enjoy the fluffy snow again.

On our second descent, the clouds crept in around us and the brighter light faded. Skiing in flat light can be tricky so we continued downhill this time.

We had wondered earlier if we would be able to ski right back to the roadside and while this required plenty of dexterity, including many sharp turns to avoid rocks, plus a fair amount of heather and grassy tussock bashing and also some upper body propulsion, we did just that.

On reflection, although not the easiest conditions for skiing, we were very happy that our choice of location for a half-day adventure had been completed entirely on skis.