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Scotland -- Snow Reports -- 2023-24

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead



Chucking it down in Glencoe
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:
Well, a quick perusal of the Cairngorm webcams reveals actual workers on the funicular track!
I wouldn't hold your breath @Deveron53! Confused
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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?
Met Office was way off for central Scotland today - two bands were forecast for the Central Belt, but the first one passed by well to the south and the second one missed us to the north.

The upshot is - I think Glenshee in particular will have got more snow than was previously forecast, and the N. England club fields should've done quite well too...
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@GlasgowCyclops, Toofy Grin Toofy Grin Toofy Grin
Maybe I will get to use my season ticket for first time this weekend
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Heading to Glenshee on Friday.
MWIS predicting a wind chill of -20 will wear a long sleeve top just in case!
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Hoss0610 wrote:
Heading to Glenshee on Friday.
MWIS predicting a wind chill of -20 will wear a long sleeve top just in case!


If its still this cold when I make my first Scottish trip of the season, I will be wrapped up in the same way as for a windy day at 3000m in the Alps.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Piste bashers have shoved a fair amount of snow around and into Ski Tow gully at Glencoe - starting to look like the top tows might be a goer soon, but wind forecast to ramp up into the weekend!

Could be a big storm with big snow totals by Sunday for the West coast mountains.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Just been touring on Cairngorm. VERY cold, -8 at base but wind chill would have doubled that. Lots of blown snow, starting to fill in nicely. Skied around off the summit plateau then a top to bottom via the ptarmigan and m2 tow line which they had thoughtfully pisted for me, well the top bit. Rest of it was boot deep really light pow on a hard base, very deep in places , like above boot. Cracking turns and everything I had on froze solid Eh oh!
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Glencoe opens tomorrow!



The Access Chairlift, Rannoch Chair, Cliffy Chair and Main Basin T bar will be open tomorrow.
Best of the skiing will be on the Main Basin and Happy Valley, Etive Glades to be assessed by ski patrol in the morning. Mid mountain Mugs Alley for Access. Lower mountain Low Road and Plateau Run complete but thin and narrow at the bottom. Early season conditions and suited to more experienced skiers and snowboarders.
Day Passes available to purchase online https://glencoe.axess.shop/en/Products/
On the website select "Tickets" then "Day Ticket" then "Day Pass" then select the date. Your ticket options will then appear.
Adult and Junior passes can be picked up from the automatic ticket machine outside the front of the cafe 24hrs a day.
Discounted passes where ID required to be shown will only be available to pickup from the ticket office.
*When you first purchase your day pass you will also need to purchase an RFID card for £3. This can be topped up from home during future visits.
Once you have your RFID card put it in the LH pocket of your jacket (not near your mobile phone) and then walk straight through the gate at the base of the Access Chair.
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@kitenski, Like that idea of the card even for day trippers.

Thanks for the report - I am a big fan of trips over the Etive Glades, may wait for a few more cm's of fresh first !
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Great to hear snow is dumping in Scotland. I’m currently in Flaine and it’s been raining all day, still raining now. Sad
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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.
Looks like a great day up at Glenshee today. Wall to wall sunshine. Butcharts access is opening tomorrow. That’ll make 5 Pomas, one tbar a chairlift and two beginners tow. Not bad at all.
https://www.winterhighland.info/snowreports/index.php?resort=gs
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Glencoe open for skiing tomorrow
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Nevis also plan to open. “We plan to open for snowsports on Thursday 18th of January. Our team will be assessing conditions today.”

No clues on website about what they are planning on opening though.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Looks like Nevis opened all (4) of their available lifts and Glencoe opened to the top today. Lecht planning on opening some lifts to the summit ridge tomorrow so that’s all 5 ski areas with some intermediate skiing on offer. Just a pity about the trip up the mountain at some of them rolling eyes
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
20240119-095318

Good day at Glenshee today
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Looks like the car Park was quite full today. The wind looks to be within operational limits again tomorrow but then very windy on Monday ?
Good to see Glenshee doing Ok snowHead
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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?
20240120-124749

Lecht today. Another good day.
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The wind just needs to do one!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Quote:
The wind just needs to do one!
As well as the temperature dropping and the snow returning... rolling eyes
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Heavy rain incoming for Scotland this weekend.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Whitegold wrote:
Heavy rain incoming for Scotland this weekend.


+11c in Braemar.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2654965
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Fortunately quite good agreement for cooler and probably snowy weather from next Thursday
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well the forecast models are throwing up some interesting scenarios. However, despite this having a bit of 2020 about it - just a week or two behind, this seems to have been the season that if it can go wrong it will!

The only three main run tows with enough natural snow to use in Scotland are the Ptarmigan Tow at CairnGorm - can’t get to it it, the Main Basin T-bar at Glencoe - broken, the Goose T-bar from Tower 4 at Nevis - not interested. Skullie
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I was sitting on the terrace in the sun in shorts and t shirt in carrbridge yesterday. Truly mad, plenyt of precip - sadly rain and the variability of temps is very frustrating. Fingers crossed we get some decent snow this week and next but it's a start again job in most places now.
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I'm booked on a BASI L1 Course at Cairngorm for 4 days 5th - 8th March. BASI are cheerfully sending out emails saying "book your ski passes now" but Cairngorm is only releasing tickets 3-days in advance. Even then I've been trying for a week to book a ticket within the 3-day window and every day I've tried I get a message that there's no tickets available. Anyone here managed to ski Cairngorm recently? I wish I'd booked Hintertux instead!
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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.
@Valkyrie, The reason there are no tickets available is that there is no skiing open, apart from the tiny teaching area at the bottom (which is fully booked). Hintertux would have been a much better idea!
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@Valkyrie, have BASI confirmed this is going ahead?
There are only 3 booked onto the course and normally they require 6 for it to go ahead. That was the case when I did it.

I wouldn’t worry about booking a ski pass u til you know it is definitely going ahead.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Valkyrie, from a guy who lives there yesterday.. for the L1 you don't need much snow tbh, if the Ptarmigan bowl holds up I reckon the course could run.

Quote:
I feel so sorry for the ground team that have worked so hard to patch up the runs but to turn up each morning to see all their hard work undone. We have now lost the Ciste and Cas leaving only the M1 tow track and the Ptarmigan bowl. (Not forgetting the beginner’s patch at the bottom)
The mist was coming and going with rain showers but occasional bright spell and sunshine, the wind was blustery but not too bad to interfere with the skiing. The snow is soft but not as soggy as Thursday and I am reliably told much better than yesterday. A few people made the walk up to the mid station and were enjoying the Top bowl. Quite a few people in the Ptarmigan restaurant at lunch time, as well as skiers there were lots of walkers, climbers and ski tourers.
The Cas is officially closed and you can see why, very narrow and thin where it joins into the gun barrel. If this had been open to the general public it would have broken in a short space of time. The gun barrel its self is narrow, very brown and gritty. There is a short walk over to the M1 lift where they have been shovelling snow for the first 10 meters or so to keep the track open. After the 10 m it is actually still in good condition.
It was good to lap the Ptarmigan area for a few hours and then down the traverse to the Cas and the M1 a couple of times before heading down to the patch. There is not enough snow to ski any lower than mid station, not even for me!
The weather is meant to be getting cooler towards the end of the week with the possibility of snow but who knows what damage will be done before then.




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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
GlasgowCyclops wrote:
@Valkyrie, have BASI confirmed this is going ahead?
There are only 3 booked onto the course and normally they require 6 for it to go ahead. That was the case when I did it.

I wouldn’t worry about booking a ski pass u til you know it is definitely going ahead.


BASI Emailed on 5th of Feb headed - "Your BASI Ski Level 1 course is now confirmed". In the email they say "It's time to start booking things, the course will go ahead so you need to arrange your travel, accommodation and lift pass"

That seemed quite optimistic to me a month ago and the snow has only gotten worse since then!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Snow forecast to come through so might be enough to create the connection again - while the totals aren’t massive the wind strength and direction should help the fences catch a lot more and hopefully that can rescue the uptracks and widen the pistes.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Need the ground to freeze before the snow
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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?
It's another carcrash season for Scotland.
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HIE rep on beeb1 news tonight admitting that the funicular is months away from running again.

What a f**k up. Perfect example of why civil servants (they might claim to be a quango but they still suck at the public teat) should not be allowed anywhere near a commercial organisation. The other scottish ski centres must be both gnashing their teeth at the money the SNP are pouring into Cairngorm, while laughing at their incompetence.

There is also the question of why Morrison construction were awarded the contract to build the funicular, by HIE whose chairman at the time was the boss of Morrison construction. And why did Doppelmayer walk away from the development ?

Furthermore, I recall from my days in the Civil Service that the government are not allowed to engage in commercial activity that competes with the private sector. How did they get away with effectively an arm of government running a ski area ?

Best thing that could happen is a transfer of all the assets to the local community.

Another example of public administration incompetence- the recently built Olympia pool in Dundee, where structural defects were found, closed for over a year, then within weeks of reopening, had to close again for further remedial work. You couldn't make it up !
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That funi will never run again in my opinion and this is just the final act of a wee wee take pantomime.
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The funicular and swimming pool flaws sound like poor design, construction and implementation rather than administrative issues ?
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They certainly are, but who commissioned, specified, oversaw construction, and signed off these projects but administrators.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
That’s Britain for you. Public or private, we can’t build or run anything.
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It's been a really sad thing to watch since the outset. The funicular was obviously a bad idea. It didn't help Cairngorm's skiing at all - the White Lady was ruined for only one thing - let alone tourism in the area more generally. Imagine if someone with some foresight, like the kind of people involved in Save the Ciste, Winterhighland, Parks Watch and etc, had been given a real say! A fraction of the money wasted on the train might then have been used on a gondola (perhaps running from Glenmore) and saving the vital chairlifts running out of the Ciste. Good news for Glencoe in some ways though. Most people I know go there now. I don't know anyone who plans to go to Aviemore, as we all used to. Fingers crossed they get enough snow at Glencoe tonight to get the top open again.
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Peter S wrote:
The funicular and swimming pool flaws sound like poor design, construction and implementation rather than administrative issues ?


Can't speak for the swimming pool, but HIE signed off the change from steel beams to concrete for the Funicular, the excuse was cost, but real reason was more to do with Morrisons being able to do a bigger proportion of the work in-house. That meant more money through the books when trying to sell the business to Anglican Water Group. AWG later sued Sir Fraser Morrison for over a £120m for fraudulently selling the business, in the end there was an out of court settlement for a lot less, and yet another aspect of this debacle tied up in stringent NDAs.

After WWF lost at the Court of Session over the Funicular planning application they were given leave to appeal to the European Court of Justice. Had WWF done so, the funicular project would have been delayed several years and missed out on the EU Objective One funding contribution - it only started with days to spare as it was before the deadline. Had WWF gone to the ECJ the project would have collapsed. Why did WWF back down - what was the quid pro quo with the boss of HIE and boss of Morrisons of allowing the project to go ahead?

In 1995 the Herald reported that "Morrisons had known what was in the brief for the contract to establish new headquarters for the North of Scotland Water Authority before it was even sent out to competitors, and that HIE had made a presentation promoting Morrisons." rolling eyes

I think the word begins with C and its not CairnGorm. Skullie
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