I have a few memories as a kid but still hold onto some of my early skiing days.
We are talking nearly 33 years ago, but I remember leather boots; funny wire bindings; the tow rope that the tractor used to run in the field at the bottom of the lecht road when we couldn't get the cars up the road and the brutal jerk that the eagle button would give as it propelled me up hill.
I also remember the people that used to help my mum make my childhood as fun as possible.
One of those people is/was Jim Duncan.
Jim was a skier but for some reason abandoned the skies for the board.
Jim has been responsible for the timings with Skimo Scotland so it wasn't that hard to persuade him to come out onto the hill with ski mountaineering equipment.
A fantastic tour bagging Cairngorm, skirting the edge of the northern corries before heading down Lurchers Gully.
I think Jim might be blowing the cobwebs off the skis.
Oh, the other chummer is Cats who having been in the deep south for the last few months has bailed north to boot camp with Gilbert :)