Scottish Skiing

Ed Rattray began climbing in the Cairngorms in the 1940s and first donned skis in 1950, long before modern equipment was available and when mountain clothing and skis were all ex-War Department kit. He graduated into the Etchacan and Cairngorm Mountaineering Clubs and became a founder member of the Aberdeen Ski Club in 1956. Later, he was active in helping to set up the Scottish National Ski Council in 1963 (now known as Snowsport Scotland). The skiing movement in Scotland burst into life as soon as the first major ski tows and lifts were built in 1961. He was just one of tens of thousands of skiers swept along by the euphoria of the time and it was the beginning of what he calls the skiing revolution. Throughout the 1960s, when Scotland went skiing, more than a hundred clubs were formed while schools, youth organisations, and thousands of other individuals, discovered the winter mountains. From that movement, young Scottish athletes emerged and began to dominate in the sport to become British Alpine Skiing Champions and GB Olympic Team members.
His involvement at club and national level over many years meant he amassed a large archive of information and pictures, which he uses to illustrate this, his historical interpretation of the last half of the last century: Scottish Skiing - The Golden Years. Part history, part memoir and part anecdote, this book will appeal to those with a keen interest in skiing.