 Poster: A snowHead
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What a dayeeeeee ! The powder covered slopes of a nearly deserted Meall a Bhuiridh (Glencoe ski centre's mountain) with not a breath of wind and sunshine early and cloud always above the tops. Having just spent a week mostly away from the piste in powder sometimes up to my b0llocks in St Anton in an attempt to keep seemingly half the population of Britain and Germany crashing in to me, I realise that coming home to skiing in the UK is just wonderful.
I'd never skied Fly Paper until today. Broke the duck though with multiple laps - just couldn't stop myself ! It's awesome, somewhat beautiful and feels as steep as any black or double diamond I've skied anywhere in Europe or the USA but is just how can I say it, um, better, that's the word.
My oldest lad had a lesson this afternoon on the 'megadeal' ticket and was loving the powder and forgiving snow everywhere. Brought him down the Wall and various little nooks, crannies and off-pistey bits all over the mountain. After hiking to the summit and taking some picture postcard photos and eating snow, we finished up coming down the mountain after 4.00. Serious value for money.
The Canyon, like the long buried Haggis Trap is loaded with masses of white ...
A couple more pictures in this thread ...
http://www.highland-instinct.co.uk/forum/read.php?1,5206,page=4
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 10-04-08 8:02; edited 3 times in total
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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lovely, was braveheart running? I can feel a need for a mid week jaunt up myself.......
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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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I really must stop reading this thread. I need to decorate at the weekend, not drive up to Scotland and ski 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Elizabeth B, leave the decorating till the summer. It'll give you something to do while waiting for the season to start!
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Seeing those awesome photies and reading the reports, I almost wish I lived further North......almost..... 
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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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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Damn it, the Braveheart opened at Nevis Range this afternoon, didn't expect it to be open other than on Sat and Sunday, so expect some blatant rubbing our noises in it photos from firstracks later......
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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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Glencoe yesterday was superb with 3 or 4 inches of fresh snow all over the mountain down to the beginners area, had an absolute hoot skiing more or less anywhere on the mountain. Conditions good with soft snow, no wind, great visibility and no lift queues at all.
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You know it makes sense.
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firstracks,
beautiful pic
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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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Just how good is this season in Scotland compared to recent years?
Those pics look stunning 
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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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| Markus wrote: |
Just how good is this season in Scotland compared to recent years?
Those pics look stunning |
That is my question, too.
Early season was poor, but conditions have been good since Jan. Although, Glenshee and Lecht have not been great.
Does anyone know how many centimeters or inches of snow have fallen so far this season? And how does this compare with previous years?
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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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Whitegold, don't forget that the Scottish season doesn't normally start until mid Jan anyway. Actually they were skiing quite early this year. When I was living and working there in the 80s (which everyone seems to think were magical) I can only remember 1 season start before Hogmanay.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Whitegold,
"An incredible amount of snow covers the hills. Our records indicate the most snow at this time of year for 15 years !" SAIS (sportscotland Avalanche Information Service)
Northern Cairngorms
http://saisncairngorms.blogspot.com/
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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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firstracks, jealous just doesn't come into it now 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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II, Thanks. Good info.
The SCGB is saying most Scottish resorts currently have two to three times the longterm average snowdepth up top. It is definitely a great season.
Can't find any websites with actual snowfall totals, though. I would guess they have had perhaps a coupla hundred centimeters this year.
easiski, I understand the earliest Cairngorm ever opened its lifts was on Oct 17 in the early '90s.
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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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| Whitegold wrote: |
II, Thanks. Good info.
The SCGB is saying most Scottish resorts currently have two to three times the longterm average snowdepth up top. It is definitely a great season.
Can't find any websites with actual snowfall totals, though. I would guess they have had perhaps a coupla hundred centimeters this year.
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I would think lots more than that!!! we also get more than our fair share of rain to all levels as well...
we had a big dump in January but look at this photo I took on 13th Feb from the summit of Aonach Mor looking towards the ski centre
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The Lecht was busy yesterday, cover looked really good with what appeared to be 6-8" of fresh. Unfortunately I was in the car and not on planks
Glenshee however was very patchy with tows only running on the cairnwell side. Glas maol in the distance though looked absolutely awesome but you'd need touring kit to get there.
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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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Yes, I've got to concurr, a really good weekend at Cairngorm - shame about the weather - Bob really must do better with the weather he orders up for the weekends  . Saturday the top bowl was open, but not the WWpoma, but visibilty was atrocious. Some of the flatter runs also became very polished so were hard to ski, better sticking to the steeper runs like the M1 and the Lady. The vis was so atrocious at times that you couldn't see the Ptarmigan building from the top of the M1 poma.
Sunday was a much better day, even though the visibilty was often worse the light was never as flat which made the skiing easier, plus we had some decent clear spells. I arrived early and was up the FRP almost as soon as it opened. I spent the first couple of hours just lapping the FRP as the runs to the right of the poma as you go up were brilliant, there had been about 4" of fresh snow overnight, so I was skiing powder practically on my own. I then headed up to the top via the M1 and skiied The M1 sidetrack, which was as wide as I've ever seen it with only 3 rocks showing on the way down, though there were a few more hiding not far below the surface as I saw one ski take a massive tumble when he ripped a ski off on a hidden rock. He was Ok but the ski had a very large core shot alongside one edge. I then skied the Lady, M1 sidetrack the M1 run to the right of the poma track as you look up (i've never skied there before as it has never had decent snow when I've been there), and then the M1 itself, they were all great. The lady in particular had some nice untracked powder if you headed out to the Tow track side.
Then in the early afternoon the sun came out between showers and it was possible to ski the East Lady taking multiple possible routes in what started as untracked powder - brilliant  .
I don't think I've ever seen so much snow all over at cairngorm. With the misty weather the navigation around the area was quite hard as most of the fences have been removed so its dificult on occasion to tell which run yuor actually on  .
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Glenshee is reporting now closed for the season; a pity as I was about to head up there this week hoping that the recent/current snow would have improved conditions. So it will have to be Aviemore perhaps...
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You know it makes sense.
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Given that Cairngorm and Glenshee seem to be opposite sides of the same (smallish) range, why is Cairngorm having a great snow year and Glenshee not? 
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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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Glenshee is a bit further south, a bit further east and a bit lower. More importantly a lot of its best snow holding areas can only be reached by surface lifts over some of its lowest terrain. This often means there is skiable snow unreachable by normal skiers. Its a few years since I was a Glenshee season ticket holder, but I was rereading my diary entries for the first year I owned touring kit and there were a couple of diary entries for early snow at Glenshee when only the Cairnwell side was open for limited skiing. The lift were really busy so I headed off to Coire Fion. This was complete, with brilliant snow, but I had to access it by a mixture of walking and skiining well away from the lifts up tracks, I had it too myself.
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Poster: A snowHead
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vetski, not unusual in there being considerable difference from one side of the Cairngorms to the other, in Jan there was no doubting Glenshee was well ahead of CairnGorm. If you take a look at my photos from Glenshee on the 31st of March:
http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pixalbum.php?pix_id=458
If anything the snow cover on Glas Maol is now probably even better from what I've heard. As Dave says the issue is one of Access to Fionn Coire. However as I understand it the principle reason for closing yesterday was that staff and other resources/plant are tied into prior commitments for summer contract and construction work. Glenshee will have been happy to reach mid April, there is an east/west division in season duration and start/end. Glenshee and the Lecht don't need much snow to get up and running and thus usually are open before Nevis and Glencoe in the West which require a more substantial base to get open, the flipside is that the smoother grassy hills that form the terrain at the Lecht and sizeable chunks of the terrain at Glenshee don't have the same snow holding ability as the big natural snowfields and gullies at Glencoe and Nevis Range. Once the base is down at the Western areas it is more durable, they thus tend to be slower to get going, but continue skiing after the Eastern areas.
Geographically and in terms of terrain CairnGorm Mountain falls somewhere in the middle, often getting the best of both ends of the season.
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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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any views on the weather for early next week? I have a meeting in Glasgow that I'm trying to combine with a day on the slopes, either 21st or 22nd...........
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Pressure charts are showing Northern or Easterly winds to the end of this week, so snow shoul remain reasonably good till at least the weekend.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
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ok, from what I'm reading, the resorts are starting to shut. Is this correct?
Glenshee : Shut
Nevis : shutting - last day Sunday 20th April
Glencoe ??
Cairngorm ?? Bobs Blog says Contrary to the usual annual rumour - we have no fixed plans about closing for skiing - we just react to the conditions and although the official end to the season has always been the end of April, if we have snow and skiers, we just keep going
Lecht ??
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moffatross, Cracking effort and TR about Broad Law. All about dedication as Roy Castle said. Was at my folks near Peebles for New Year and did wonder if any one ever did a bit of hiking with all the snow they had then. Even saw the result of a small slide/avvy from the Inerleithen road on one of the hill fields, took out part of a stone wall.
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kitenski, Last year Nevis shut early April due to lack of snow. The year before at the end of April they shut mid week and opened at the weekends until first weekend of May. There was still quite a bit of snow then and it was lack of people going that caused them to shut but this year there is much more snow.
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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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moffatross, Broad Law is more or less on my doorstep living here in Peebles! I assume you are using mountaineering skis with the ability to release the heels? I have often considered getting my cross country skis out but never actually used them in earnest. A bit ashamed now seeing your efforts.
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