Report based on Glip's log - Troop log was not written up during this period
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3rd-5th February 1984 Skiing Weekend to Glenshee
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The Party (others may also have been present)
Leaders: Eric Wylie, Glip, John Kerr, Shela Miller, Chris Foster and Bob Yarr
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Venture Scouts: Kenny Kerr, John Kerr, Tommy Boag, Andrew Firth
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Scouts: Kenny Blair, Ally Blair, Ewan Blair, James Gatherer, Adrian Simpson, John Carson, Kenny Burns, Ross Gillespie, Jonathan Foster, Craig Goodlet, Nicky Clark, Philip Clark?, Andrew McEwing?, David Gordon, Callum Gillespie?, Stuart MacDonald?, Ian Morrison, Mark Sinclair?
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Guides: Sally Fleming, and others?
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Others: Alan Todd and others?
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Report
This was the big skiing event everyone was looking forward to. Kenny’s enthusiasm for skiing and John Yarr’s contacts made it all possible. A coachload of Scouts, Guides, Venture Scouts and Leaders left the Scout Headquarters at about 6 PM on Friday evening, excitement bubbling over as some Scouts and Guides hoped that we would get trapped up the slopes by blizzards. Chris and Glip shared a front seat with an unexcited Kenny opposite . Behind , we had the sensible calming influence of Guide captain, Sheila Millar. In Glasgow, we picked up Bob Yarr, our ski weekend coordinator and a big brother to John.
The journey to Blairgowrie was a long one, and not surprisingly had to be livened up. With Chris present, that wasn’t difficult.
At Blairgowrie, we spent 1 ½ hours buying fish suppers and collecting hire equipment and checking it. The bus driver was bored stupid. Mind you, he looks like he’s bored most of the time anyway. We had to drive back the way we had come for about 7 miles to get to our chalets. These were quite a surprise. Made of Finnish pine, they were very luxurious and each was equipped with colour TV and bunks! What would BP have thought?
Kenny and Glip shared a chalet with Ross Gillespie, Peasant, John Carson, Kenny Burns, and Adrian Simpson. We watched Remington Steele on the TV, had supper, then went to Pit. Glip missed a leaders ‘meeting’ by accident.
Saturday 4th February 1984
We had to get up about 6:30 AM because we wanted away for 7:30 AM. There was a delay outside Blairgowrie since the police were going to convoy us up to the Spittal. Another delay here for about 15 minutes, and then we were off to the strains of “Here we go, Here we go” from the bowels of the bus (Kerr, Yarr and co).
During the morning, Chris and Glip wandered around the nursery slopes. Low cloud obscured visibility somewhat. Eventually, we returned to the restaurant for refreshments. Firthy appeared looking thoroughly fed up and not at all well - suffering the consequences of the previous evening.
The weather was now clearing fast, so Glip and Chris went up the Tiger chairlift as the Sunnyside Chair had stopped. The Tiger chair took quite a while though because it stopped for about 10 minutes. The wind at the top was fierce and a lot of people were blown over by it. So Chris carried his skis down the ridge out of the wind. Once we had successfully reached a decent slope, we meandered down. John Yarr appeared out of the blue and give Chris a couple of hints. After this, Chris decided to have a coffee so Glip went off on his own. The afternoon was quite good fun with better conditions than the morning. Glip crammed in a descent of the Tiger which meant he was about 10 minutes late, thus annoying everyone who was already in the bus.
Food for the evening meal was waiting for us at the chalets ready to be cooked, but somehow the instructions didn’t work and the mince was quite cold. Eventually, the meal was finished, although most of it had to be thrown out. A concentrated session of clearing up followed where everyone worked well. Once that was done, the TV was allowed on again.
During the evening, there was a soggy glove fight, Glip versus the rest. Very irresponsible but hilarious all the same. There was also a mammoth game of Risk organised by John Kerr and friendswhich lasted till 2:30 AM for those foolish enough to participate.
Sunday 5th February
As a result, we were late away – not that it made much difference in the end. Again, we got convoyed to the Spittal where we were told ‘no bother’ by the resident policemen. Famous last words. Some coaches got stuck near the top and several cars had difficult,y so we spent about an hour stationery half way up the hill with our driver getting more and more worried – especially when some policeman told him he might have to reverse back to Spittal. Eventually, a snow plough came down to us then reversed back up in front of us - avoiding a stuck car en route with superb skill.
The weather cleared up slowly again today, but a biting icy wind stayed with us all day and made things very uncomfortable. Near the end of the afternoon, the weather closed in again. Conditions were also more tricky with ice patches on the runs. In addition, there were bigger queues since chairlifts and some of the tows were not operating because of the wind. The skiing today was far less enjoyable.
Our stuff was already packed on the bus, so after we dropped ski gear off at Blairgowrie, it was straight home stopping off at Perth for fish suppers. Chris and Glip had regular fights throughout, with Sheila trying to keep order with ‘Life of Christ’.
We got home about 10 PM.