Winter Skills Week of Awesome Ness!

Once again another amazing course from Pure Outdoor. Having attended a beginner navigation course with Pure Outdoor - after how well that course was ran, I didnt have to think of where to book my winter skills course. The course was well structured and the knowledge available from the instructors Andy, Guy and Liam is first class. Having different instructors on a few days i thought was great as I picked up tips and knowledge available from all three. I now feel confident that i can tackle the mountains in winter. On the fourth day we got to put all our skills we have learnt to the test, With a challenging hill climb in crampons and a ridge walk in harsh conditions. We covered every aspect needed throughout the course. Navigation, Ice axe arrest,emergency rope work and shelters...cutting steps. The list is endless. And if there was something we wanted to learn all we had to do was ask and the instructor would work it into a day which i really valued. Also Guy can be persuaded with a cuddle and Haribos. Management Response: Thanks Ross.... Haribos make the world go round - cuddles won't get you a free trip to Stok Kangri... but worth a go!

Winter Skills (Week)

A very good course! Well organised and run by Liam and Dan, I found it very interesting and worthwhile just a pity that the amount of snow was limited although this did not affect the course. Would recommend it to anyone.

Want to go up those hills? Get your winter skills!

The winter skills week was a fantastic and fun week and one which I would highly recommend. As I arrived in Avimore I was pleased to see the mountains and the ground conditions didn’t disappoint. The Cairngorm mountain range was vast and there was plenty of snow and ice so lots of opportunity to ‘get spikey’ as it later became known. During the week I recall following only a few paths and we mainly spent our time ascending steeper mountain sides making full use of our ice axes and crampons. We were fortunate to have some fantastically sunny weather, which, coupled with the snowy landscape, made for some epic views. The course gave me a real opportunity to put my kit and myself to the test and it was great to get off the beaten track. We were making our own tracks. After a week of hiking, navigating, self arrest, digging and rope work I feel more confident than ever. The course was a perfect introduction into the world of winter mountaineering and has given me the desire to learn the many other aspects of enjoying myself in the winter hills. The course had a good balance of the learning of skills and the opportunity to explore the Cairngorms. The course was professionally run but very laid back which made it all the more enjoyable. I'd like to thank Guy and Liam for a great week. See you on the 'beginners rock climbing' course soon.

5 days of mountain fun

From day one we were throwing in the deep end, with high winds battering the Cairngorms, we had to learn fast. Both Guy and Dave inspired confidence and knowledge making it easy to pick up new skills and feel safe even in the numerous white out conditions we had over the week. Although the course is structure into days where skills would be learned, I found that the instructors would introduce skills on the mountain if the situation suited, which was excellent, providing real experience of when to use a particular skill. A good example of that was getting off the summit of Cairngorm where we were introduced into pacing and to correctly judge the distance without falling off a cornice 600m away. This was an invaluable experience of getting out of a tricky situation. The final day with Stu was just as good we went through more Nav and some of the more advance tips and skills you can use for locating yourself on a mountain, such as slope aspect. All in all a great course, providing lots of information and real life skill, that are easily absorbed from the Instructors who all made it a fun and exciting as well as challenging week.

What an excellent experience!

What can I say? This is the second course that I have been on with Pure Outdoor and Guy and his team keep exceeding my expectations. Guy and Dave and the Pure Outdoor team have an excellent teaching method and I really got the full benefit from the course. Really can't speak highly enough of the course which was made even better by the great people and the instructors. I enjoyed it and leant so much that I've just booked myself onto the Morocco trip in October. Guy/Dave, thanks for an asolutely excellent and educational week - I've even perfected the art of brewing my own cup of 'Man Up'!!!!!!!

Winter Skills (Week)

Was very pleased with the content of this course, the weather was good to us (with respect to the course) as we experienced it all from rain through whiteouts to snow and high winds all with freeze thaw snow cover. Guy made sure the course was safe yet flexible enough for us to detour to Ben Nevis for a day to put all of our new learned skills into practice and the Ben threw it all at us including a proper whiteout with extreme conditions, a great navigation opportunity. I cannot praise this company enough. In fact I am currently booking a Navigation Course to consolidate what we have already learnt on this course. Excellent!!!!

I hadn't realised how little I knew

I hadn't realised how little I knew until I went on this course! Just come back from a reallly good 5 days on Winter Skills Week and found it invaluable. I'd highly recommend this course if you want to feel safe on the hills.

Great Outdoor Company!!!

We spent a day with an instructor from Pure Outdoor. We had a great time learning new techniques and skills. Our instructor was really friendly and helpful. The company's boss is super enthusiastic and accommodating. I'd recommend this company to anyone, anytime! Can't rave about them enough!