 Poster: A snowHead
|
| roga wrote: |
In the meantime was just looking at the following site and was mightily impressed by the quality of the information and the arguments put: www.savetheciste.com |
Yes - and it would be helpful if anyone who hasn't yet signed the petition could do so and get their friends to. Some of the best skiing on Cairngorm (to say nothing of morning lift Qs) will be gone forever if something isn't done soon. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
out of interest, what's happened to the 'bumps' on the white lady, do they bash them nowadays compared to years ago, or is it my memory 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Scotland sounds very warm today.
How are things looking at the 5 centers?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| kitenski wrote: |
| out of interest, what's happened to the 'bumps' on the white lady, do they bash them nowadays compared to years ago, or is it my memory |
There have been some bumps this year, but they've not yet amounted to much. Partly piste basher traffic going to and form digging out the Funicular at various times, partly the sheer extent of snow cover spreading people out all over the mountain, thus there's not really been enough planks on the Lady to get major bumps forming, also the really big bumps were something I always associated with with later in the season and when your confined to the narrower space of the natural snow field. Occasionally you can end up with a very narrow snow field literraly only a couple of bumps wide in the bed of the burn on the Lady at the end of the Season, it's an absolute hoot with mountainous bumps, but I guess not to those who are seeking a pisted motorway! Something like:
o o
O
o o
O
o o
lol:
People were still lapping Coire Laogh Beag on Wednesday, though I appear to have missed the boat on Laogh Beag -> Lochan na Beinne -> Glenmore route I didn't do late Feb because of avalanche risk. Funicular and Shuttle Bus were running this morning (only uplift on), but the funicular went off about lunchtime and it was too windy for even the Daylodge Poma so that was the end of sliding for the day.
It's very mild, in the West more so Wet and very windy. There will be a loss of base depth and some loss of general cover on exposed open hill-sides (lower down and on East aspects that were windward to the main storms of the season thus have less cover) but for now no major impact on extent of skiable terrain in the East, overall the Lecht and CairnGorm having the most consistent quality of cover on the runs, but apart from S & E aspects (Cairnwell Race Tracks and Butchart's Access - in contrast to Carn Aosda which still loaded) Glenshee's still looking good.
Some bottom fenced runs in the West that never accumulated that much depth are suffering, but upper half of Nevis and Glencoe still looking good, ample snow for returning to the top of the respective access lifts and still good cover on Yokies and Allt Sneachda to the foot of the ski area at Nevis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Nice day under part cloudy skies with some good sunny spells and mostly good light giving some great riding still on CairnGorm Mountain on Sunday. Picks of the day were the East Lady, East Wall and Coronation Wall. Laogh Mor Return still complete offering a 3mile / 2000ft vertical run for those looking for something off-piste but less steep (though plenty steep enough if you head further East to the headwall of Laogh Mor). Photos will follow.... sometime, Winterhighland Database server has gone kaboom... 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Winterhighland, Temps seem to be rising rapidly. Do you think easiski's May bank holiday suggestion will still hold ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some pix from CairnGorm as promised:
^Looking up the Ciste Gully from the car park level at 1800ft.
^High on the East Wall, extensive cover far beyond the usual East Wall Gullies. Fantastic crunchy spring snow on Sunday.
^Looking over Coire Cas from the East Lady, pick of the afternoon, super smooth soft snow to lay out big carves on.
^Life at the top, well top of the Ptarmigan T-bar about to Traverse out to the East Wall.
Full reports and more photos: http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/pixalbum.php?pix_id=625
halfhand, am slightly scared of tempting fate after last week, but you would hope in spring there would not be to many shots at 100mph+ SW'ly storms. The fact is there's still a very impressive amount and depth of snow on a lot of the mountain, and it would be very rare for there not to be more snow yet. It would still take something pretty exceptional to bring this season to an early close, though there will be freeze/thaw cycling through this week to keep the emotional roller coaster going.
The top of the Ptarmigan T-bar in the above photo has a five foot fence at the side of the uptrack, below which there is a 2-3ft trench for the tow track, so that's 7ft to the top of the fence of which there is no sight.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1873Chris, keep an eye on the MWIS forecast, it has been pretty reliable so far this season for me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Cheers arv i have been a using it all season but usually the rest are pretty similar but for some reason nobody agrees
Hopefully they will all agree by Tuesday night
Having never skied Cairngorm before what runs should i make sure i don't miss?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
A few inches of fresh snow at most levels in the Western Areas overnight freshening things up at Nevis and Glencoe. Still a bit windy today, but all areas open and though uplift limited to the Funicular and a couple of lower tows the whole Cas Side is open today and reasonable overhead. Lighter winds, but a bit showery at times over the next few days seems to be the theme, detail day to day proving a tad tricky to nail down on the weather front just now!
Still good riding for all ability levels with the full on mountain vertical on offer at the five areas and when the Shuttle Bus is running still 2000ft vert at CairnGorm (Was sent home yesterday when no skiing in the morning).
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| Winterhighland wrote: |
| Still a bit windy today |
Understatement of the week! It was blowing a hoolie at the top by early afternoon in a pretty unpleasant hail shower; even the car park tow was stopped at 2:30pm.
However, snow conditions are excellent from top to bottom. The often icy Traverse has lovely soft spring snow and although the Burnside Area is becoming narrower compared to the last few months, there is still plenty of space to get through.
It's windy again today but Thursday looks great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
On my way up to cairngorm now and it looks interesting to say the least lol
won't be much visibility I feel
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Report from Glencoe ski patrol on Twitter: Around a foot of new snow fell on the top runs last night. on Tue, 23 Mar, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Am liking this from MWIS:
| Quote: |
Planning Outlook for all mountain areas from Friday, 26th March, 2010
"In the longer term, there are now strong indications of a return to cold weather on the run-up to Easter. Most forecast models from the different centres are one by one 'flipping' toward pushing low pressure east and south of Britain into next week, allowing northerly winds in from the Arctic. There will be snowfall on many mountains - much related to a deepening low that will move slowly east across southern Britain Monday. Most snow could well be across England and Wales. |
Hopefully the most snow will hit the highlands though, don't want it wasted down south!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
Play nice now Roga
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
^ sorry, I'll rephrase ... hopefully the most snow will hit the highlands and Brecon Beacons, though, don't want it wasted down south with the exception of the Brecon Beacons!
Hows that?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Another great day at Cairngorm today although the visibility at the top was very poor from about 10am onwards. There's soft spring snow from top to bottom with very little ice around.
Some runs, mainly lower down, have the tops of rocks exposed so take care. Also, the lower slopes are beginning to narrow resulting in a few bottlenecks. All week has been very quiet with the top car park still only half full by 10am, although I expect it will be busier next week with the start of the Easter holidays. It will be fantastic if we can still ski and board top to bottom into April.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Managed to get a lift up sometime during the Easter Break, is there still a bit of decent off piste available or is it all tracked out and has the melt made it a bit gnarly?
Do people honestly think they'll be a good snow during or before easter?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
roga, Need a bit on our local Shropshire hills too
I'm hoping to get up to Scotland in the week after Easter, so fingers crossed....
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Edit: Double posting
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Fri 26-03-10 13:19; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
roga,
Thanks for that, I've only been once and it was pretty wild so we stayed on piste and I didn't get to check out any of the terrain, are there any drop's/mini cliffes available?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
| milnerhome wrote: |
roga,
Thanks for that, I've only been once and it was pretty wild so we stayed on piste and I didn't get to check out any of the terrain, are there any drop's/mini cliffes available? |
The main area at cairngorm is pretty much cliff-less. Plenty in Sneachda but thats another thing altogether. If you wants cliffs go to Glencoe, Scotlands hucking capital. More cliffs than and natural hits than all the other areas combined!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Pow, david@mediacopy, hopefully this is better for you  :
| Quote: |
Planning Outlook for all mountain areas from Saturday, 27th March, 2010
The weekend will see a drop in temperature across all mountain areas, and showers, particularly across parts of northern and western Scotland, where snow showers will at times give blizzards. Next week will be cold and often windy. An area of low pressure will cross southern Britain on Monday and then move only slowly away east on the run up to Easter, resulting in a return to cold weather with at least some snow on nearly all mountains - with substantial falls in many areas, especially eastern Scotland and across England and Wales. |
milnerhome, as scottishskier says Glencoe is the place for hucking and cliff drops etc. If you get the chance do head across there from Aviemore and have a play, it's about an hour/hour and a half away if the roads are clear. I love Cairngorm because I grew up skiing there but Glencoe, which I discovered more recently, is an absolute hidden gem and can be truly awesome and although small I'd put it up there with anywhere I've been in the world on a good day.
If you're into gullies and stuff there are plenty in the Gorms if you're prepared to tour away from the lift served area rather than just do the usual traverse off piste and take an off piste run back down to the lifts. For real expertise in touring you could do far worse than heading over to Winterhighland and asking some of the real experts there for info on the gully and touring stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Thanks for you responses roga, scottishskier,
Glencoe sounds ideal but the snow doesn't sound to good there at the moment, and as the driver and others in the group are just going for piste skiing we may have to stick to Caingorm.
Oh well I'm sure I'll find something interesting if I go for a hike with a shovel!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
milnerhome, any idea where you are headed yet? Saw someone on Hellbents earlier in the year.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
milnerhome, I finish Uni on Thursday and will looking to get up as much as possible (every day, depending on snow, is a real possibility). It is only an hour for me. Depending on conditions, Nevis and/or Glencoe will be the picks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
arv, if the snow does what it should, your gonna have an awesome time up there! Shame I can't get more time off but I couldn't afford the train or coach up so I've gotta work around the person who's giving me a lift.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
I'll keep you posted and let you know nearer the time where I will be and when. Friday is almost a certainty right now but the weekend is a little more uncertain, would love to get up though! (Coursework central right now, 1 more to go and would like to get it out the way before the Easter week begins!).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good luck with the exams. I know the feeling. My degree exams were 6 days ina row, got them over quickly mind you. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
. Interesting (ie frozen rutted) snow on the descent back to the ski area.
