Five, we set off, with a mission to ski,
To a sheltered spot, near Creag Meagaidh,
A tip off it was, from our old pal Al T.
But when we got parked,
Jim, oh, he looked narked,
No snow, could we see,
Not up to the knee,
As MWIS had said,
Yet, up, we got lead,
With skis on our back,
In our pockets, a snack.
The wind on our faces,
We were put through our paces,
Right up to the corrie,
Trying not to worry,
About the lack of the deep pow-pow.
But gosh, oh my, wow wow:
Vast rock faces loom,
Straight out from the gloom,
A glistening loch just below,
AND now we could see some snow!
Our David ran past,
Oh, so very fast,
He’d sacked off the ski,
For a day less tricky
Trail running and biking instead,
It didn’t take him long to get ahead.
Now lunch altogether,
Despite windy weather,
‘A team’, now we really felt,
Ready to find a snow belt,
(Just hoping for minimal melt).
We back-tracked a little,
On through the spittle,
Then we paused for a muse,
Where we then had to choose,
Further up do we go?
With a risk of no snow,
Or do we cut this walk short,
And head back to comfort?
But we rallied together,
And set off through the heather.
With the last of our will,
We rounded a hill,
And VOILA, it was there,
That white stuff, so rare!
Skins on, we went sliding,
That sensation of gliding,
Atop of the snow,
Getting into the flow,
On, up our burn line.
It was truly sublime.
Near success in our mission,
Up, for the final transition,
Skins back in the sacks,
Not yet time to relax,
One by one we went down,
Metaphorically crowned.
We had all dared to hope,
Now the kings of the slope,
We flew down that hill,
Alive, from the thrill,
Our ribbon complete,
An incredible feat.
We linked islands of white,
Only mildly shi*e,
A ski over grass,
A fall on ones ar**.
All part of the fun,
We didn’t want to be done.
But back down we wandered,
As we chatted and pondered,
How our gamble paid off,
Thanks again to our boff,
Al T, the mountain goat.

– Fi