Trailbase Expeditions

The Cairngorms

Expeditions

The Cairngorms are often touted as being one of the last real wilderness areas in Great Britain. After reading tales of river crossings, sweet singletrack, and snow capped peaks we could wait no longer. A date was penciled in and we set to work formulating a route and spending endless hours perusing shiny new bits of kit for the task ahead.

We finally settled on a 3 day expedition circumnavigating the Cairngorms, taking in 130 miles or so based loosely on routes we had found in Singletrack, MBR, and online. We decided to wild camp both nights, and carry all necessary food and supplies with us so we would be pretty much self sufficient. The downside was the weight we would have to carry. Jez and I split the bare essentials between us and still ended up with our expensive lightweight mountain bikes weighing in at over 45lb a piece with various bags and kit strapped to them. Plus our rucksacks came in at about 20lb each. This was going to be interesting!

Japan Expedition

Some people (well mostly my wife) might say that guide books are a bad thing. Well for me anyway. They lead to all sorts of crazy ideas and desires. So as the year drew to a close, and after devouring several snowboard guides, yet another ambitious plan was being hatched. A trip to what is arguably one of the powder capitals of the world.

Destination: Niseko-Hirafu, Japan.

Situated on the northern island of Hokkaido, about 2.5 hours from Sapporo international airport, sits the resort of Niseko which although small and low by European standards boasts some of the best and most consistent powder in the world. Enough said.