Scottish Ski & Board 2025/26 e-mag
How do you capture the magic of skiing in Scotland? That’s been our mission for over a decade, writes Roger Cox
To read the e-mag version of Scottish Ski & Board 2025/26, please click here
Welcome to the e-mag version of Scottish Ski & Board 2025/26! We’ve been producing this annual supplement for 14 years now, celebrating the very best of Scottish snowsports, and there have been some notable cover images in that time. Among my personal favourites are Craig Cameron’s stunning shot of Jamie Johnston skiing beneath a monstrous bergschrund on Number Two Gully on Ben Nevis (2014); Hamish Frost’s snap of Niall McPherson dodging some super-sized icicles in the Cairngorms (2016); and Olympic freestyle star Kirsty Muir helping us celebrate our tenth birthday in 2021 by crossing her skis in mid-air to create a perfect Roman numeral “X”.
Of all our cover shots, though, I think this year’s is my favourite. Partly it’s because it captures Euan Baxter in that magical, weightless moment that comes at the apex of a turn; partly it’s the way he’s made to look like Ant-Man by the awesome, craggy amphitheatre in the background; and yeah – OK – maybe because I’m a snowboarder rather than a skier I find it easier to daydream myself into pictures of snowboarders, so I suppose you could say I’m biased.
Another reason I like this shot, though, is that it was taken last winter, during one of the leanest snow years on record. Baxter and Lesley McKenna, who took the picture, had just been helping the folks at US production company Warren Miller Entertainment shoot a segment of their new film, Sno-ciety, in various locations in the Highlands – you can read all about the project in Jamie Currie’s interview with McKenna, starting on page 4.
The snow conditions might not have been perfect – either for the Sno-ciety shoot or for Baxter and McKenna’s subsequent adventure – but if this photograph tells you one thing about skiing in Scotland, it’s this: that even in a difficult season, those moments of pure magic are still out there, waiting to be enjoyed – all you have to do is go and find them.
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