 Poster: A snowHead
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| lynseyf wrote: |
| cairngorm friday.....snow was amazing but I kept thinking how much more amazing it would be if I could see |
Word to that.
Think I'll be firing up north somewhere this saturday, keep up the awesome updates guys!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Cheers bikeandsnow - thinking at the moment of exactly what you said - a couple of days at Nevis and a day at Glencoe - particularly as there're such good deals on the passes at Nevis. - Hope the weather's kind for our drive up (from Nottm) and that if weather forces us to go to Cairngorm we'll enjoy the drive anyway!
As you said we'll keep an eye on winterhighland..... Just found out one of my colleagues is heading up to Nevis on Tues so hope to meet him for a coffee up there too (or a wee dram if its more fitting!)
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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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Bikeandsnow, great report.  Ronald, that's correct, lack of money for repairing the existing uplift as the train costs a fortune to keep. Customer numbers isn't a problem and I noted Bikeandsnow's comment about weekend queuing to get up the hill. The West Wall chair would have fixed that on Saturday.
Those weekend queues go away by early March though.
Espri, thanks for the good wishes, they worked.  Lordjohn, you're right, Glenshee snow was awesome but what's more, every lift was running, the sun was shining and being midweek, there was no queueing 
More pix and report ... http://www.winterhighland.info/publicreports/index.php?50,1336
Awesome firm snow under the headwall on Glas Maol
Queue for the Glas Maol poma
Sunnyside from the Tiger
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Surely if the snow is often at its best in March and April, but most punters assume the season is over its a case of marketing.......esp now as it is so exspensive to go abroad. Having been up for a long weekend last weekend, many of my colleagues at work were incredelous that I had had a good time, but after seeing the pictures I reckon a couple are thinking about heading north themselves. What the Scottish resorts need are some tax dollars to overhaul the uplift and install some seriosly modern snow making that can put down lots of cover when the temps dip below freezing, combined with good snow management. Now that would be good use of my tax dollars! The one thing that did make me chucle was the focus on environmentalism at Cairngorm, to be honest although the area is nice its not the most spectacular landscape on the planet and the highlands on the whole seem pretty empty, its also a very man made environment and without so many sheep,deer and grouse would look very different in its "natural" form. Still had a good time thou, just a shame it all seems so much on a knife edge....
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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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| Quote: |
hat the Scottish resorts need are some tax dollars to overhaul the uplift and install some seriosly modern snow making
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Most of the scottish resorts have experimented with snow making systems but only the lect (it might actually be glenshee but I cant be bothered to check now) has the right balance of humidity and temperature for snowmaking systems to work which is why none of the other resorts have them rather than a lack of money to install them.
And would you want to invest in scottish ski resorts, the meteroligists don't seem to want to, the winters are getting shorter and there is a thaw set to come in next week, especially over the western resorts, that I can't see anyone wanting to invest in them untill someone proves that this winter is the start of a new trend. In which case I would happily invest 
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Great photos - thanks!
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rambotion, Apart from Nevis range the scottish resorts are mainly skiing in gullies, so my now many of them will have more than a couple of metres of snow. thus they contiinue to be skiable after a thaw. the ridges will get bare, but look through some of the pix from various resorts. That's what skiing is in scotland, although most skiers only think it's good when the ridges are covered like now.
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brian
brian
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moffatross, is your first pic skier's right of the entrance to the Glas Maol black ? I reckon that slope, although pretty short, might just be the steepest lift served skiing in Scotland. I'm away to find a protractor. 
easiski, the main run snowgoose run at Nevis is a pretty deep gully, several metres at least, and it's currently just about completely flat !
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brian
brian
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espri, steeze ! Pre-White Lady t-bar as well and by the looks of it, no elephant fence. Got any more pics from around then ? IIRC, the 1964 season was supposed to have been really poor. I read somewhere (prob winterhighland) that Glenshee built the sunnyside lift following the bumper snow year of 1963 and could only use it for a few days.
Thanks for posting that.
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moffatross, you lucky so-and-so! Great series of pictures in your PR bringing back memories of the day before. I was not sure whether it was Wed or today you were going up to Glenshee; I hoped it was Wed as it was fabulous weather in Peebles as I walked over the lower hills. We were originally to go up Wednesday but had to pull forward 24h; nevertheless we had a superb day as reported previously. Today here in the Borders light snow all morning so far.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Anyone going to Glencoe this saturday? (14th).
Couple of friendly intermediates looking for a lift from the Glasgow area (sorry I know this isnt the right sub-forum).
Willing to travel to pickup point and share petrol costs....and hopefully a great day of skiing.
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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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I forgot to mention, at Glencoe on Tuesday, there were 2 low flying jets passing over the mountains right next to the resort.
Does anyone have any information on these fighter jets?
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I've seen the RAF fly Tornados over there.
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You know it makes sense.
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| brian wrote: |
| moffatross, is your first pic skier's right of the entrance to the Glas Maol black ? I reckon that slope, although pretty short, might just be the steepest lift served skiing in Scotland. I'm away to find a protractor. |
brian, yes, that's exactly where it is, hop over the fence to your left a few hundred metres along the traverse just as it gets flat and where to continue you need to hoof or pole. For a short part of the pitch, it's about on a par with the Fly Paper at Glencoe but as you say it is pretty short and secondly there is no exposure to rocks etc below so it's nowhere near as intimidating. I tried several approaches to it last February though but bottled out each time when I saw the blue ice on the cornice rollover. Yesterday however, all the ice was higher up just down from the little wooden wind fence by the traverse. The snow on the cornice and below was great. Grippy stuff, mostly untracked which still made a flattering spray every turn. Life is sometimes near enough perfect.
lordjohn, I'm glad you had a good day too. The only plus side to yesterday from what I can gather is that we had the Tiger open in the afternoon. On the other hand, the Tiger really wasn't up to much as it rattled your fillings and had no nice snow on it. I was in Portobello this morning where there was plenty of snow falling but Glasgow this afternoon was just wet. When I got home to Moffat, it was snowy so I hope we both see plenty of white on our hills tomorrow. I might try a hike and slide over your way soon ... have you any recommendations where the road gives you some decent height to start with ?
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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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| brian wrote: |
| espri, Got any more pics from around then ? |
I haven't really got much, not on the computer, anyhow. But if I find anything that seems interesting amongst my chaos  , I'll post it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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moffatross, I don't think we have any areas to match your Moffat hills where you appear to have road access to high points but to be honest I haven't investigated and probably never will due to advancing years  .
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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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has anyone got an alternative link for the scotland adventure pass? - Can't get the website to work and we're heading up north on Sunday.... Have emailed them but if anyone else has a 'back door' let me know!
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brian
brian
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brian
brian
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roga, thing is, all this kind of stuff is being written as if it's a once in a life time thing.
Ok, conditions are really great just now, but there are almost always fantastic days every season, you just have to learn to read the weather and conditions and be poised for action.
If you just rock up any old day between January and April, good luck !
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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brian, absolutely one of the biggest misconceptions is that any decent days are once in a quarter century events, as you say there are superb periods most seasons - off the top of my head in the last few seasons I can think of March 2006, January and March/April 2008 and January/February 2009 when big dumps of snow have led to sliding as good as anywhere you care to name.
However there are those around who will discount the idea that even on a good day Scottish skiing is as good as anywhere and articles like the one I mention above show how wrong they are.
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So what time of the year is the best bet to plan a trip to the Highlands?
I convinced a mate of mine to go against the mainstream and go for Scotland some time in the future (Unlikely to be this year though).
Since we're in the Netherlands, we'll need to plan ahead a bit
Tips?
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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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Ronald, guess that depends on what you like? March is generaly considered to be the best month for best mix of snow and overhead conditions....
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To my mind it's a matter of seizing the moment; you cannot really plan ahead much as there may be very little snow about. We are all getting quite carried away here as the conditions have been superb. But the Scottish Highlands can change from a classic "Alpine" environment as it was earlier this week to Arctic or a "cold wet snowless place" in a matter of a day or two. It's fine if you are only a couple of hours away like me. I could tell Tuesday/Wednesday would be fantastic because the crowds would be absent as it was midweek and the forecast was glorious. Then we had a lot of snow on Thursday which made travelling very difficult with some roads impassable.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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II, Something that involves working lifts. So preferably no heavy storm;)
For all I know there are no guarentees for conditions anywhere, and thats especially true for Scotland. Just looking for the best chance to get something
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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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lordjohn, well seising the moment is a tad hard when you have to cross the pool
Currently conditions are about as good as it gets in Scotland, as was March-April last season from what I saw here and on Winterhighland...
So i'll have to make a bit of a gamble, thus its important to know when the gamble has the best chance of becoming a fun week.
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Ronald,that's a hell of a gamble.
FWIW, the best 'warm settled' weather in Scotland is often in May under the influence of a strong sunshine in a dry high pressure cell. Three years out of four this holds true and in 2008, this was in fact all the 'summer' we got. Late March into April often delivers heavy mountain blizzards. Factoring in those two and you might be tempted to place your gamble on the second half of April.
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You know it makes sense.
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Ronald,
If I was in your situation I'd go for mid March to early Apriil. I reckon the best chance of decent conditions is over that period. But there is no gaurantee, this being scotland there could be very little snow or you could be stuck with blizzards, high winds and no chance of sking cos of blocked roads and no uplift for the period you were here. However there's plenty of other stuff to do even if you can't ski.
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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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moffatross, I realise Scottish weather is ... somewhat unpredictable and.... somewhat extreme, so nobody will be able to give any guarentees...
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Poster: A snowHead
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cheers [bold]
brian
[/bold]
much appreciated - got a response from them saying it all works fine there so must have been a problem from my work's end
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Am I right in thinking the east, 'Gorm and Glenshee, would be the best bet for tomorrow (sun 15th)? Thanks
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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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Its thawing slowly but there is so much snow out there it'll take a while. Driving through the forests yesterday evening was alpine with the trees bent over with the sheer amount of snow on the branches.
I've been out east today and there is a stupid amount of snow even down to lowish (300m) levels.
if you are prepared to hike/tour for your turns then all the better as you wont have to queue.
Have fun, Mike.
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Spent the day today running a skiddoo around the xc trails in the Clash to pack them down. Snow is still over 1m deep in places. I'll not complain about the pisting at Cairngorm again having spent the day doing it myself. Providing the snow doesn't get too soft and wet tomorrow we may try and run the roller and track cutter over the trails, though we may have to run the skiddoo around on its own to pack down a wider area first - plus there are a couple of trees down across the trails that we'll have to remove first aswell.
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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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Dave Horsley, What you ventured into woods with all this snow..... do you have a death wish.... what if a branch where to fall on you 
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barry,
It would be nice if it would do it itself - then I could have spent the day skiiing instead of pisting.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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hi, in fort William having a local ale in the grog and gruel and hoping it'll cool down a bit by tomorrow! Snow report once we've hit the slopes....
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Ok, tried Nevis range this morning and pretty much all closed, went to glencoe instead and snow was good, vis was not great and we got soaked due to rain and mist....Spring run ok but rocky, plateau was excellent but patchy but most fun was a gulley next to the one-man-chair, gonna try cairngorm in the morning :0)
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