 Poster: A snowHead
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Some very snowy photos and reports from Sunday 27 November, on the Winterhighland.com site:
Cairngorm ... Glenshee ... and The Lecht from Saturday 26 November.
Snow cover on Glenshee is reported by the centre itself as the best for several seasons on south-facing slopes.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I have skied at Allendale last year (a day of rope tows puts a lot of load on your arms)
http://www.ski-allenheads.co.uk/
Interesting for a day out when the conditions are good, but no good at the moment ?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Is there any detail on current snow depths???
How much snow actually fell at cairngorm?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Looking at the various pictures - that live webcam of the carpark is particularly revealing - I'd say about 50cm of snow has fallen on the low slopes, but probably a fair bit more on the upper slopes. Once you build the drifting effect into this, things can get very interesting on Cairngorm. 50cm of snow drifted into corries can mean a few metres of snow depth.
There's chatter that the White Lady run has been skiable. If that's the case, this is impressive for the last days of November.
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Supposedly the white lady, M1, M1 side track, M2 and daylodge are all skiable, but not pisted or patrolled yet so its at you own risk.
Not been yet though. Was at the lecht on Sunday where there is an impressive amount of snow for November. They weren't open today or Monday - a little problem with a few feet of snow blocking the road  . They are hoping to open tommorrow (wednesday) if they can get and keep the roads open.
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brian
brian
Guest
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Went up today:
White lady has great cover, couple of burn holes to watch out for though. M1 has a few rocky bits near the bottom, would probably be covered if they bothered to piste it out !
Traverse/105/zig zags, great cover, and all the car park runs. Gunbarrel isn't filled in. Top basin looks very snowy but vis wasn't very good up there !
Lovely soft fresh snow, not exactly powder, but far from the traditional Scottish windslab 
The cover is fairly even for Scotland, a result of the North wind blowing up the fences rather than across them, but there are lots of bits at the top where the fences (3 ft or so) are covered !
I managed 14 trips up the funicular (if my arithmetic is right, over 20000' vertical) and my legs are well and truly shot !
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brian, 14 trips on the funicular! good man, you must be knackered! I was due to head up today but we got held up unfortunately. Instead we're off up tomorrow but its more for a few days break and we'll just go where the notion takes us. I'll probably do a half day at cairngorm or lecht tomorrow and maybe call in glenshee the day after. I'll be happy with a couple of hours here and there, I'm just getting such a buzz out of there being genuine decent snow and particularly this early! Did you get any photos? I'll definitely get some.
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brian
brian
Guest
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brian, that looks GREAT. best pix I've seen from Cairngorm for a good while. Almost makes me feel homesick. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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brian, congratulations on the 14 trips up the funicular - fantastic! I wonder what the record is?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Looks great Brian. And pretty quiet too
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brian, Looks like you had the place to yourselves. Hopefully going up to Glenshee Friday
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You know it makes sense.
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Here our pics from the day, expect a video too tomorrow hopefully, if I get my fingre out.
snow-uk gorm photos
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Looks like there has been a fair bit of rain low down 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice vid macphee70,
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brian
brian
Guest
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johnboy, I don't think it's rained that much, the freezing level has been up at the summit or above for a couple of days now and things still look predominantly white. I've got everything crossed that most of the snowpack holds out. Things should gradually cool down over the weekend. If the base survives till the refreeze then things are looking seriously good for the season ahead !
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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brian,
Fair point, hope it stays good up there. I'd love to get a chance to ski it some time this season.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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guys,
I'm just back down from a few days up around the hills. Went up to Cairngorm on Wednesday but was too late to get a ski. I went up to the carpark though and had a nosey. There was very little wind, visibility was excellent and speaking to some sliders the snow conditions were excellent with just a little care needed near the bottom where a few rocks were sticking out. Stayed the night in Aviemore and headed back up on Thursday morning. Weather had turned and it was miserable, 3 degrees ish in the car park and about 1 at the top where I'm afraid it was raining. I thought conditions were appalling, visibility was very very poor and the wind was pretty unpleasant. the Snow from about half way down was really deteriorating and frankly I didn't hang about. Shame - it was a bit of a waste of money - and its hard not to think you're being ripped off at £20 ..... ah well I'd rather be ripped off than have no skiing here.
Headed back down to the town picked the mrs and the nipper up and headed off to take the scenic route to the Lecht. Stopped there for a look at the new day lodge and stupidly bought something to eat - utterly disgusting and incredibly opverpriced! Anyway thats another story. We took seats at the windows looking out onto the slopes and I pointed out to Sue the direction of where the charilift is .... you couldn't see it from the lodge - thats about 30 yards! The weather there was horrifying - about 2 degrees with sheeting rain howling across. There were people 'enjoying' the 'snowsports' on offer there though ... hardy, hardy people. We jumped back into the warmth and comfort of my vehicle and left them to it. Stayed the night in the Hilton near Ballater - craigendarroch I think - got a great deal on a suite for the night .....
Got up this morning and headed south back through Braemar up and past Glenshee. The weather today has been clearly the worst of the last 3 days with violent winds and rains utterly hammering down. the rivers and streams up there are raging. Got to Glenshee in digsuting conditions and pulled into the carpark. Some poor soaked punter was actually getting a lesson on the nursery slush. Looking up I was stunned to see some people actually braving the weather and sliding about ... I couldn't help thinking that if they stayed up there too much longer then they'd be in for a long long walk down as the 'snow' was retreating at quite a rate - I couldn't be entirely sure that they hadn't walked up in the first place so poor was the snow cover down low. Quite frankly I think Glenshee would open for business if you went up there and emptied out a few bags of icing sugar on the heather! Looking right up to the top though its just possible that it may have been snowing up there though. quite bizzarely there were no cars in the car park - where had these strange mad snowsports fanatics come from and how had they gotten there!?!? .... I hope this wasn't the work of some canny thieves!
Anyway I've certainly got my fingers crossed that the temps will drop, the wind change direction and the snow come again before all thats there washes away again!
All in all a nice few days cruising about the country with some great scenery when you could see it!
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Adamski,
Nice honest report. Sorry the conditions weren't better for your trip.
brian,
I take back what I said, the conditions are pish
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Adamski, sounds about right for Scotland. If you haven't trudged up a muddy hill with your skis over your shoulder, bracing yourself barely able to stand against the rain and gales which have shut all the lifts, in order to ski 20 turns down a 3 yard wide strip of slush, you haven't lived! 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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It is really Glenshee that has unfortunately taken a hammering in the second half of the week, esp. on Friday evening when a band of fairly torrential rain came to a halt over the NE and the Southern Cairngorms. CairnGorm and the Lecht (to a lesser extent) escaped the bulk of the rain, and most main runs are still complete at the Lecht, with a mostly reasonable cover between the fences on the open runs.
With regards the Lecht, I have had reports ranging from so bad didn't get out of the car for Saturday, through to people saying they had a great day, that the snow was actually good firm packed granular snow, quick and nice to ski on and having clocked 12,500ft of vertical in the afternoon alone!
While the thaw has been eating away at the lower snow, the upper slopes at CairnGorm have actually been gaining snow, above mid-station not a lot of damage has actually been done to the runs, and the M2/Daylodge comno continues to provide a decent route to the Carpark. A couple of pictures from the Gorm on Saturday: (Top: Looking down Coire Cas. Bottom: View across the Upper White Lady from M1 SideTrack).
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