 Poster: A snowHead
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@JimboS, Think Glenshee may have had a problem updating as snow gates were closed and only opened around an hour ago, car park busy now.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Bit of a disaster for Glencoe.
They had a lightning strike at 4am yesterday, and all the uplift was out.
Access chair now fine, but everything up top is out. They are bringing in generators to try and put on the PLateau poma, Wall T bar, and Rannoch button.
However, based on the fact that tickets were sold out, it will be busy / big waits etc.
They are offering refunds if you wish.
Looks like a good weather day too...............
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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.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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Thanks haggishunter - so no Cliffy Chair tomorrow then...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Latest from Glencoe (this morning)
Limited uplift today as we still have no power on the mountain, thanks to a heroic effort from Charlie and John Norman who worked through the night we have Access Chair, Plateau Poma, Wall T bar and Rannoch Button running. Plateau cafe will be open for hot and cold drinks only. All runs have gained further snow overnight
Tickets now sold out for Friday, no tickets will be issued onsite.
Anyone wanting a full refund please email admin@glencoemountain.co.uk
presumably Glenshee can't get Glas Maol open as the slopes/lift tracks leading to it don't have sufficient snow??
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@kitenski, might give you a live update from shee later.
Currently stuck in the queue waiting for the snow gate........so there must have been a reasonable amount !
Hills look quite well covered tbf.
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Webcam looks EPIC - wahooo
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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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@GreenDay, my mate also in the same queue, although webcam shows some people skiing and I saw someone open the gate earlier today!
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@kitenski, gates are now open, looks like a cracking day once I get there !
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| kitenski wrote: |
| @GreenDay, my mate also in the same queue, although webcam shows some people skiing and I saw someone open the gate earlier today! |
I counted 10 campers on the hookups so probably them.
Farmers have keys for the gates as well obvs, as do 'others'
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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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Have a good day @GreenDay,
This is webcam from top of clunnies, I guess the lift opposite needs snow pushing in to cover the rocks before they can open up?
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In a queue to get in car park now.
Shambles
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You know it makes sense.
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It was afternoon yesterday before anyone arrived at the car park. Incredibly it seems that the road clearing is not a priority at Glenshee. Not sure who is responsible?
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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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@JimboS, Perth & Kinross Council are responsible for clearing/ploughing the South Access at Glenshee.
Glenshee have offered to get working on clearing the road earlier or even through the night, but the Council won't grant them permission. Think that problem may be coming to a head now one way or another after today. Very frustrating for Glenshee when they're ready to open by 8.30am and the Council/Police make an ar$e of it.
Properly equipped vehicles would make short work of getting up to the Ski Centre with snow on the road as well, no need to hold people with 4WD/AWD/Winter tyres in the queue for so long.
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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 also understand that the police have to ok the opening of the gates, so whilst the council may clear the road they are still dependent on the police being able to attend and open the gates. This clearly needs changing as doesn’t appear to work at all!!
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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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When i worked there we had a key so we could get up to work before the road was sorted out, we had a 4wd Panda on snow tyres though  As said before P&K council control clearing from Spittal side and Grampian (or whatever it is called now) on the Braemar side. Then once the road is cleared - either snow or ice as it was this AM, salt needs cars on it to work properly (and only works up to about -10ish) the Police control the opening and closing of gates. Ever since I worked there we had tried to persuade the councils to let them work on the road but not allowed, car parks yes, road no although in reality they do a wee bit. This of course creates a bit of tension, esp. at the moment as people are desparate and not many of them really understand the complexities of the roads. THEN you have the overlay of getting ski field staff which is hard enough and probably pretty awful just now. From the look they were running at 8:30am - grooming was being completed and tows were turning, the ticket office would have been open as well, except nobody could get there. Net result is Faceache is melting down with people moaning, now, fair enough they haven't got a days skiing in and it's a bit of a mess BUT it started snowing last Thursday basically and has only really been not snowing since very early this AM bar a few clearer periods. So a lot of work to do to get it cleared. The online booking seems to not have worked as you still need to collect a ticket, not sure how to get round that as if its wet/snowing a paper printout or a phone will be a PITA and there be the inevitable p1ss takers who turn up with no ticket and use lifts. So no easy solution. If you know then you know - avoid the first bluebird day ! Anyway they are a great bunch of people up there and I salute them, ignore the throbbers.
There's so many factors - reduced policing, council pressures on trunk roads, staffing generally across both of these, timing and the fact that while we all think skiing is important not everybody does and the centre have zero control over being able to lean on council and police no matter what we all think (it used to be a bit easier in the old days !).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@orange, Good post. Especially the advice to always avoid the first bluebird day!
What people tend to not realise is that Scottish exists on a perpetual knife edge, with many seasons of sunning at a loss having to be made up by the occasional good and long season. It is no surprise that Glenshee does not have the most modern ticket infrastructure, it would be completely uneconomic to install one.
On a normal day when the gates are open, the queues for tickets and hire gear only start to build up from about 9.15 and reach their peak around 10 as late risers arrive from the central belt. If you are there at 8AM you will probably get good parking and near enough walk straight up to a ticket desk when it opens. What happened this morning is the entire queue built up on the road because the gates were not opened until mid-morning, and then overwhelmed the infrastructure by everyone arriving at the same time. It would still have been true, though, that those who got out of bed earliest would have been at the front of the road queue and had less queuing for tickets! I have had this happen before, we were maybe 10-15 cars from the front fo the queue at the gates one morning and say there for 2 hours, but were pretty much straight onto the lifts and had a couple of hours of quite quiet skiing as the hordes behind us were processed and made it on to the hill.
I advised others a few days ago here that the first days of decent cover are always madness and to be avoided, no matter how tempting!
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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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interesting info and probably another reason most of my days seem to be in March/April! anyhow I hope
@GreenDay, gets some nice skiing in!
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Zikomo - totally. If you are in central belt I always tell people , get out your bed and be in the carpark at 8am with a Thermos and some breakfast. You will get the best skiing between 8:30 and 12:30. It's not Val D'Isere you know - it totally is a knifedge. I always feel sorry for the staff as I was on the end of some proper whingeing back in the day and the advent of the Internet just creates a vacuum for the whingers. Anyway, I'm off next Wed for a ski up there and will do lift cover at lunchtime as always.
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Just had a browse over the facebook page from the pics and vids you can understand the extreme frustration and complaints. I have never seen GS to be that bad ever before, I'm sure it will put many off skiing in Scotland for life.
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Ahh the good old days, I remember this one from 2010, perfect snow, warm and sunny, entire area open and no queues.
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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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@orange, 8AM would be a let arrival for us!
@JimboS, Yes it was bad. But there also seem to be lots of unrealistic expectations and unjustified criticism of the Glenshee Team. I don't think they always get it completely right (who does!), but I am damn sure they try hard and have to deal with pretty old infrastructure because that is what the resort can afford. I have seen huge queues at 11AM when the snow gates had not been shut, and people still walking a mile up the road from their cars to join it, so today does not look quite as unusual as some think it is!
What I always hope for is 4 good weekends of skiing at Glenshee, after that the novelty seems to wear off for lots of people and it is much less busy. If we go before those 4 weeks have happened, we get there around 7.45 and normally leave around 11.45/12.00. We get more skiing in those 3 hours or so than most will get in their entire day, not least as it takes that long for the hordes to make it over to the further valleys.
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| orange wrote: |
| . Anyway, I'm off next Wed for a ski up there and will do lift cover at lunchtime as always. |
Very nice too, but might I ask why you would cover a full time Glenshee workers lunch hour? Excuse me if it’s a case of I’ll take your ski boot off and you’ll take mine.
Regarding the queues up to Glenshee when the great and the good open up the snow gates it’s a high quality fleet to head on up but dependant on the one plough and 1 Ford Rangers on the 18 mile from gate to gate journey. It can take 3 to 4 Passover’s to clear the route. Longer obv if the temperature is below -5 and snowing. I’ve not seen them plough at night the last few weeks just a spray of salt around 4 in the morning if it’s nit snowing. I think they see how much snow is going to fall before they decide to send out the plough.
Anyway anyone that done 14 hour transfers from the 3 valleys to airports will be thankful of the minor Glenshee queues, especially as the Scottish wind clears the smog.
Good skiing/boarding/paragliding
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I do it because they need people to cover the lifts for breaks and i feel that having skied there for 41 years and having worked there it’s the least I can do. These places don’t exactly take the cash in and esp this year it’s tough on staffing
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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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Just back, inhaled the fish supper and now able to do the report !
I wont go over the snow gates issues - they have been well covered above, and I fully expected them to be closed - except to mention that I passed the P&K snowplough parked up before the pottery and well before I hit the queue this am. About 30 mins into my wait, the plough passed everyone en route to the gates............so I knew it was time for 40 winks.
It was another wee while before the police passed me - so, as everyone says, these are aspects completely out of Glenshees control. The delay getting into the car park was because they had to plough out 3 areas of overflow parking due to overnight snow.
Obviously as everyone arrived at the same time the queues for tickets were special.
The non pre booked one was shorter so I joined that (makes no odds you can go to any one). On the subject of passes / tech, I got chatting to a couple in the queue and they told me that Lecht has a system of reusable passes - which you can buy and reload. Seems a sensible system and if little old Lecht can do it, I hope Glenshee follows suit, it might also be a useful source of income for them...........frankly I would pay £20 for a reloadable bit of plastic.
Snow was fantastic, but if you discount the kiddies stuff and the Baddoch which is just access - all that was open was Sunnyside poma x 2, and across the road Butcharts Access Poma and the Cairnwell T-Bar.
As you can imagine, the queues for these were also long. I had a peek in the Tea at the Shee, and the queues were also massive !!
Later on they opened the Cairnwell chair (first time this season I think?) and also Tom Dearg (I got the virgin snow, lovely).
They were pisting Home Run so assuming we get more snow, opening up that area will help take the pressure off.
As I mentioned earlier, the snow was tremendous, the pistes were excellent and I think I also spotted a few people touring over at Caenlochain.
I love skiing in Scotland, everyone is so friendly - I wouldnt normally hit the first bluebird either but for a variety of reasons I cant go next week and am away to the Alps the week after.
On the facebook complaints (I dont have FB), I am sure some were just venting frustrations - I have been skiing Glenshee since I was a teenager, some 40 years (yikes) and that was the worst overall queuing experience I have ever had.
They are clearly struggling with staff numbers, the ski patrol guys were mucking in helping lifties / queue management all day. Allied to the fact that many people have not had skis on for 2 or 3 years, the demand was huge. It wasnt their fault that the snow gates were shut for so long - as @Backcountryboarder, says, that is solidly on the council and police.
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Nice one GreenDay, sounds like a good day ! The ‘who can touch the road’ is an ongoing saga !
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You know it makes sense.
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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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@denfinella, if they have installed that skidata system, then kudos to them. Recycling is always good etc.
As for the trip, absolutely worth it. Nothing beats being in the mountains, and Glenshee has always been my fave place to ski in Scotland.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@moffatross, I was goin Lubnaig then Tay for first two
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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 first one looks like where loch Lubnaig flows into the river Leny. The second one looks like a view from just above Strathyre, looking over loch Lubnaig. The third one is the sheeps heid pub.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Bigtipper, is correct for the first (Ben Ledi behind). Close but the wrong loch for the second, and as for the third... 
Second is Loch Voil from Creag an Tuirc above Balquidder.
Third is Beinn Fuath from St Fillan's Hill above, er, St Fillan.
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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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Skiing in Scotland a joke as always
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Based on - what ? One field with issues while the other 4 opened and ran fine ? Best you stay away then.
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| Ionizingskin wrote: |
| Skiing in Scotland a joke as always |
No, it was a bit of a pita yesterday, but not really on the same scale as, say, having to stay indoors for 2 days in Tignes a few years ago due to too much snow and danger to life - now that is a joke.
As several people have mentioned, Scottish skiing is great if - like me - you can miss the crowds and pick and choose your days / resorts. Next time I go it will hopefully be 2 or 3 weeks, all will have had a bit more snow, be a sunny and quiet tuesday or something.
So, to summarise - you dont know what you are talking about.
HTH
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@Ionizingskin, best stay away.
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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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One thing not covered above about Glenshee yesterday - it didn’t really appear they were limiting ticket sales . Not sure if that’s still the intention?
Earlier in the week it was showing low availability online, but then was still allowing people to buy tickets right up to Thursday. There was a post saying they’d had an issue with the online system not sending out confirmations, so not sure what the score was there. I wonder if there was a glitch and it had allowed more to be sold than intended. On top of that they also seemed to be accepting walk-ups. So basically a free-for-all, and seemed to be little advantage to booking online.
Overhead a comment that in ‘the good old days’ they used to walk up the queue with a bag of tickets, and another bag for your £20 in cash. Easy!
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| paulo wrote: |
One thing not covered above about Glenshee yesterday - it didn’t really appear they were limiting ticket sales . Not sure if that’s still the intention?
Earlier in the week it was showing low availability online, but then was still allowing people to buy tickets right up to Thursday. There was a post saying they’d had an issue with the online system not sending out confirmations, so not sure what the score was there. I wonder if there was a glitch and it had allowed more to be sold than intended. On top of that they also seemed to be accepting walk-ups. So basically a free-for-all, and seemed to be little advantage to booking online. |
I was originally looking to do Shee, but they were completely sold out.
I booked for Coe but unfortunately they had the lightning strike so I canned it thursday evening..........had a quick look at the Glenshee site and lo and behold they were selling online for Fri.
As mentioned above, I just went in the "non online queue" as it was miles shorter - so, you are right no advantage at all online.
Online will only be a +ve if you can do (as mentioned re Lecht above) some reloading of a reusable card. Now that would be a step change !
As you say, might have been a glitch allowing sales to overtake the max numbers they wanted?
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FAQ
OK, my guesses are, respectively, Loch Katrine, Loch Tay and somewhere off A82 on way to Crianlarich ?