 Poster: A snowHead
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espri, Don't think so... Only went up on the train once and it took me 1/2 hour to get down to the lower mountain which was much better..
If there was lifts down to 300m it would have been a great day: see photo attached.....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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II, thanks for the information. Sounds (and looks) like fun!
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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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The snow was unbelievable. Visibility was crap though
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brian
brian
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More frontal action on the radar tonight. This is the best we've had in early Feb since 2001. 
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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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Just wish there was a break in the snow. I'm sittiing at home unable to make it to Cairngorm due to the road conditions. I have just managed a nice 15km ski from Udny station to Ellon along the old Banf and Buchan railway, but its not the same as a day of powderskiing at cairngorm. Itsn not often taht there is a snorkel say in scotland, and looking at the amount of new snow on the webcams that looks like waht we've got.
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lovely flickr shots! - hoping to get up a week tomorrow - hope this weekend is great for those up there already but leave us some snow for next week!! 
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Been at Cairngorm yesterday and today and the amount of snow is just unbelievable, shame you could only see about 10ft in front of you. Still had a great day yesterday and half day today and when the clouds finally lift it will be amazing
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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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Had a great day at cairngorm today, powder skiing all morning on the east wall of the lady and then a couple of runs down untracked slopes to the coire na ciste car park, lucky the bus was running to get back to the main station. Only drama was the que for the funicular, only averaged 1 run per hour! Still was well worth it and the west wall of coire na ciste remains in great condition, wish I could stay longer.
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anyone been out west? - we're booked to stay at Fort William from next Sun for a few days - what's it like there?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Very good day with excellent snow conditions reported by my son who went to Glenshee yesterday. Most lifts were operating and queues not bad considering the weekend crowd. There has been light snow overnight here in the Borders. As prospects are good for the coming few days the wife, James and I are intending to go up to Glenshee tomorrow.
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brian
brian
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boardiecouk, I was up at Nevis yesterday. The high runs off Summit, Warrens and the Goose are all deep and wide. Further down the fence lines are loaded but less cover away from them, so consequently narrower and more likely to get scraped. Surface conditions are a mixture of nice new soft stuff, underlying hardpack and some icy scraped bits.
Off piste, there are deposits of new windblown soft stuff blown over the old base of bulletproof hardpack. Back corries were closed due to avvy risk, but there's probably enough snow over there once it settles down.
Nevis absorbed the numbers well, no queueing of more than a few minutes except a 15 minute or so wait to get the gondola back down after 4pm. Warrens had no queues at all.
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Thanks Brian. Looking forward to the first visit to Scotland in 10 years of boarding!
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You know it makes sense.
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boardiecouk
Don't overlook Glencoe! Totally different to Nevis Range (let's just say a bit more basic, with creaking old lifts etc) but brilliant - great skiing/boarding among gullies etc. It's about 35 mins drive from Fort William.
Then there's Cairngorm, which is do-able in about an hour from Fort Bill. Another cracking area.
You'll be spoilt for choice - with the proviso that the weather plays ball.....!!
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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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yeah, cheers - we planned to base in Fort William and pick the resort each morning - hoping winterhighland.info is up to date!
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Poster: A snowHead
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you'll generally need longer than an hour to get from Fort William to Cairngorm, particularly with current roads/temps
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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firstracks, wow, stunning photographs. I love the final sunset one.
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Looks fantastic....are there (m)any hidden rocks around?
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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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Yes - hundreds. Everybody should probably stay at home worrying about them rather than coming to enjoy the fabulous snow!
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firstracks, looks simply awesome - I'm sure I can't remember it looking as good as that anytime I went up in the 70s and 80s...
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What has happened to the lift on the right in the photo above (White Lady T-bar?)? Is it in use at all? It looks as though the cables are hanging off.
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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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espri, yes, the white lady T-Bar which was damaged about three years ago IIRC, was never repaired, apparently being surplus to requirements and management felt it wouldn't really have helped reduce queue sizes by repairing it.  'Managed decline', 'core lift policy' etc are other terms that have been bandied about. Apparently, snowsports are less popular now, visitor numbers are dropping and they needed to reduce capacity in-line with the reducing demand. A similar rationale was taken for the disbanding of the West Wall chair citing that in these days of global warming, it would never really be viable again as the loading level would most often be hundreds of feet below the snowline and that the other uplift was perfectly adequate.  Actually, now I come to think of it, half-term school holidays are upon us and the snowline is many hundreds of feet below the base of car parks. 
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Thanks for the information, moffatross. Good to hear, though, that queuing is becoming a thing of the past on Scottish slopes (I can remember multi-line queues for that T-bar on Easter weekends). Or have I perhaps misunderstood? Seriously, I suppose that it is difficult for the lift company to make money in bad winters, so maybe they have to cut back somewhere.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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moffatross, Wasn't another issue CML simply not having the money to repair the White Lady?... The fact they had to be bought out by HIE to have the place surfive at all (public instance if I understood it correctly) seems to illustrate the terrible financial situation of CML.
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You know it makes sense.
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easiski, so the wife, elder son and I went up to Glenshee yesterday; first time for me since mid70s. Classic conditions with part cloud cover. The wife and I were a little rusty but soon recovered a reasonable level of ability with concentration on arm lead. We estimated there were a couple of hundred cars. There were some hard snow/ice patches in places to catch the unwary with the long red run from Glas Maol a little challenging in parts. No queues and all lifts running except Butcharts and Tiger. One lady we spoke to had come over from Kingussie rather than go to the nearer Aviemore because of anticipated crowds. My wife was very impressed with Glenshee after being frightened by the more rugged Glencoe.
Glenshee is superb at the moment so lets hope the conditions hold up and there is more snow from time to time. moffatross, you should have a great day and look forward to pictures.
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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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boardiecouk, how many days are you going for?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great pics, Bikeandsnow.
Conditions look topnotch.
I understand there has been skiing right down to the gondola bottom-station at Nevis Range in recent days.
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brian
brian
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Bikeandsnow, nice one !
Whitegold, there were a few nutters doing this on Sunday (boarders). I wouldn't like to be the one repairing the base damage.
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I did all my base damage on an errant rock on 'flight' (the black down the side of Warren's T-bar). Skied to car park - OK to the fence but rocks all over just after. Walked about 100-150m into the trees & took a gentle forest trail all the way back to the car park. Minimal base damage, certainly considering the battering already meted out on the unpisted runs. Don't think there is anything I cannot repair myself. Like Bikeandsnow I went to Nevis on saturday & Cairngorm on sunday. Spent the day at CG in full queue avoidance mode. The DLP saved the day for me. Mainly used the funicular to the top because the queues for the M1 & the WWP, when it finally opened, were huge. Toss-up which of the WWC & WLT was more needed. The best lift was the bus. Had to ski out to the Ciste car park (deep snow there) because the WWP broke while I was in the queue. Bus then funicular was pretty good.
And that is Happy Valley at Glencoe BTW, did you ski all the (open) runs from the top? I assume the flypaper is shut since it avalanched on friday.
And yes winterhighland very useful via wap.
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/neil2829/Nevis7thFeb2009#
http://picasaweb.google.com/neil2829/Cairngorm8thFeb2009#
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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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| what...snow wrote: |
| And that is Happy Valley at Glencoe BTW, did you ski all the (open) runs from the top? I assume the flypaper is shut since it avalanched on friday. |
Only skiied the blues from the top that join onto a couple of reds. Did not do the reds or the flypaper on the far left of the piste map. Was really practising long turns and my shin was hurting anyway. Was just taking it easy trying to get the missus to start carving a bit.
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Bikeandsnow, plan is to head up on Sunday 15th with my bro and head back home on Weds afternoon - so we'd get 2-3 days on the snow, lovely pics btw!! Can't wait.... hope the weather is kind to us!
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I would definitely visit Glencoe if I was you. It's on the way home from Fort William. If I had a choice of a days skiing / boarding this week, I'd rather do Glencoe than Cairngorm. If the plateau button is not running, don't worry, since you only use it once at the start. It was not running yesterday morning, it's only a walk less than 10 minutes to the first chair.
The drive to Cairngorm is stunning though. I've not seen anything like it before. I was travelling from Fort William to Aviemore for 46 miles before I saw a vehicle on my side of the road!
It will take you 90 minutes to get to Aviemore. Then allow 20 minutes to Cairngorm. Depends how bad that road is up to the ski centre. Personally, I'd do 2 days at Nevis and do Glencoe on your way home. Although you should check weather on Winterhighland first. If it's too windy, Glencoe might be a non starter, but I'm not sure because conditions were perfect there yesterday.
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moffatross, hope you have a great day tomorrow - looking forward to the report.
Great photos - thanks Bikeandsnow and what...snow (loved the Cairngorm sunsets).
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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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I am so jealous of those photos, was at cairngorm friday and saturday and the snow was amazing but I kept thinking how much more amazing it would be if I could see
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FAQ
Anyway, I'm sneaking a day off to go to Glenshee tomorrow which alleges 18 lifts will be running tomorrow to serve its three valleys. 
It was taken at Cairngorm at Easter 1964 (plus or minus a year).
