Snow sports in Scotland

[young_bairn]

Late to the thread so everything has been answered.

As mentioned above flexibility is key for Scottish skiing/boarding. I work shifts so midweek is where it's at when the conditions are right.

I drove up to Aviemore on Saturday night and slept in the van overnight so I could get an early start at Cairngorm (I have a season pass). Got top to bottom snowboarding with hardly any queues. Lots of fresh snow but plenty of sharks to be avoided as there was no real base. Pretty good day with no wind and great visibility. Doesn't get much better than that tbh.

Agree with the coffee and cake comment regarding 'Natural retreats'. Hopefully the locals can make enough noise to force changes on how the mountain is run. While the staff and lifties are all good year on year there is no improvement to the lifts or slopes. Meanwhile Glencoe and Glenshee continue to invest and upgrade.

[Jambo85]

Early indications for snow and settled weather for this weekend 20/21 Jan are looking good, particularly for Glencoe and Nevis...

[Jambo85]

OP - sorry for repeating myself but I hope you're making plans to get to Glencoe this weekend if you can!! It's looking like being one of the best days in quite a few years.

All subject to change of course...!

[Hammy98]

All the info appreciated guys, was thinking of making my way up to Glencoe this weekend but Glasgow and the surrounding areas are supposedly going to be hit quite badly today and tomorrow. Stuck with a gutless courtesy car at the moment so that might put an end to my plans.

Will see if I can rope in a couple of mates to make the jaunt up.

Cheers

[Jambo85]

Saw on FB earlier a post from Clarkston Snowsports Club - they're taking a bus up on Sunday, non members welcome. Potentially sorts your car worries and they sound like a sociable bunch so you'd probably be alright if you can't round up any mates. YOLO and all that.

[Laplace]

I was at Glencoe on Thursday and they have had, and continuing to get, some serious snow. Visibility was poor and I struggled making out terrain higher up, tomorrow looks like it has great potential! Skiing to the car park too.

Glenshee today was good although it hasn't seen the same amount of snow as Glencoe. A lot of firmer and harder runs with ice patches, but still plenty of good skiing to be had.

Aviemore tomorrow

Good times.

[Jambo85]

I'm pretty optimistic about how March is looking for the Eastern resorts. Towards the end of this week and over the weekend looks superb - all that new snow and decent overhead forecast, Glenshee should have Glas Maol open again by then too. Worth a day off work I reckon.

Could all change of course.

[tvrolet]

Jambo85 said:

I'm pretty optimistic about how March is looking for the Eastern resorts. Towards the end of this week and over the weekend looks superb - all that new snow and decent overhead forecast, Glenshee should have Glas Maol open again by then too. Worth a day off work I reckon.

Could all change of course.

I was up at Glenshee on Sunday again, and while the runs are full, it's not caught as much snow as you might imagine (I was working in Devon during the week and loads more snow down there!), plus the winds have scoured the peaks - still lots of heather peeking through off the main runs. The Tiger and Bunny run are icy, and there's sod-all cover on the Cairnwell. but Bucharts access was decent enough apart from the wind in your face going down - but bare and not skiable off the run.

I can't remember the last time I skied down Sunnyside apart from at the end of the day to get back to the car, but it was probably the best snow on a groomed run on the hill. But do I remember the first time I skied Sunnyside - it was a t-bar in 1968, so 50 years ago

They opened Meall Odhar late Sunday and while the whole face of the hill was loaded with fresh deep snow, the top few hundred yards on the flat bit were ice. I'd imagine when they open it up the Coire Fionn easy facing side might be quite scoured, but I'd say Glas Maol should be pretty epic, particularly the west facing stuff so the black run and skiers' right above the gully.

All credit to Glenshee nowadays they seem to do a great job keeping snow on the runs even when there's really not that much snow about.

[J66JBo]

The Scotish resorts are all at the mercy of the wind. A small change in wind direction and the snow will be stripped and redistributed somewhere else on the hill. Whilst lots of areas are bare, there are areas with extremely deep accumulations that will be skiable well into May (and hopefully June on the highest areas). The lower Cas and Ciste on Cairngorm are metres deep now. There is an area on a NE facing aspect of Cairngorm that has over 20m of snow and should be there until next winter.