Sunday was a perfect day in Deeside for testing my new Åsnes Nansen Mountain Skis, called Fjellski in Norwegian. The sun was shining and fresh snow had fallen on the hills. My destination was Cairn Leuchan, a small hill in Glen Muick, following a track from Ballater over to Mount Keen. This a great mountain bike track in summer, dropping into Glen Tanar and downhill to Aboyne. Today the track was icy, with hard packed snow, and some powder blown across from the moor. Difficult to walk up but perfect to skin on the skis. It was a very cold day just below freezing  but with strong north winds and frequent snow squalls it felt like minus 20.  So as well as testing my new skis I also tested lightweight Paramo Velez trousers for these conditions. They are much lighter than Paramo’s Cascada Trousers, as they use a lighter Nikwax outer and pump liner inner, and are designed for summer walking -not these conditions. The lightness of the Velez trousers is a great advantage for ski touring and cross country skiing and they were fine on the move but a little cold on my lunchstop behind the Cairn. I should have taken some new Torres Insulator Trousers to pull on ……still it was a day for skiing not for sitting around testing new gear!

The river Dee opened for fishing today, the BBC where on location along with Billy Connolly and a wee splash of whisky.