 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all. Been a while!
We are more than likely going to go without our annual ski trip abroad this year (jan 2014) due to rising costs and only really wanting to go to Les Arcs (£1k each self catering!!), so suddenly had the brain wave of going to Scotland for a few days. My in-laws have a motorhome that we could use FOC, so only cost would be fuel, campsites, food, ski equip hire and lift passes.
I know I asked about Austria in a motorhome this time last year (and ended up flying), but just got a few questions about Scotland: Any advice would be gratefully received. I will also google this, but feedback from people who have been there and done it is always better
1. Is it easy to drive to the resorts (in a motorhome) or would it be like driving up the mountains towards Les Arcs (Would not like to drive that!!)
2. Which Scottish resort would be best for 2 intermediates who like cruisy blues and the occasional red (our level is "love the cruising blues of Les Arcs...wasnt a fan of the blues at Soll as found some difficult...but V heavy snow conditions!)
3.Would I stay in a nearby campsite and drive in each day, or could motorhomes pitch up "in resort"
4. Prices? (food/lift passes/equipment) Will prob drive up Monday, Ski Tues-Thur, drive home Friday
5. What are ski conditions like? I know it prob wont be blue skies like in europe...is it always really strong winds etc?
6. What are the run conditions like (ie, is it quality like Les Arcs or worse than Bulgaria??) Seen the piste maps for the resorts-seem limited on blues & reds, would it be enough for 3/4 days skiing in 1 resort?
7. How far are the resorts apart from each other - could we travel to 1 one day and another the next day without travelling through tiny lanes/mountains or drive all day and hardly ski
Again, any advice would be appreciated. Its only a thought at the moment and if it doesnt sound pleasant, than we will prob not go. But would be nice to get a few days skiing in this season.
thanks!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glencoe has some electric hookups in the car park, and is easily accessed from the A82 so is easy to get to. There's nothing there apart from the ski area tho, so you'd have to entertain yourselves in the evenings.
Cairngorm has the Glenmore campsite down at Loch Morlich near Aviemore town, but it's still a fair few miles from the skiing. Access should be clear pretty much most of the time. The A9 does get closed from time to time, but not for long.
Nevis Range tolerates campers in the car park I believe, and as it's almost at sea level, it's also usually pretty clear of snow.
I've no idea about Glenshee, but as like the 'Coe, there's not a lot there in the evenings after the place has shut up.
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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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thanks feef, Just been looking at piste maps for Glen Coe and the Nevis range (as they seem close to one another and nearest south of scotland...less driving to get there!)
I would prob be for 3 days skiing, so not too bothered. Got a DVD player in the motorhome. Was thinking of staying on a campsite so that we had use of showers etc. V modern motorhome with own shower but with all sky gear, not a huge fan of showering in motorhome. Just looking at prices. Lift hire & equip will come in around £50 each per day....not too bad (if the resorts are worth it)
Thanks again
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The Coe and Nevis probably have the best/easiest accessible off-piste too, but it's been many years since I skied there, so others may disagree with more up-to-date knowledge 
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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 again. Never done off-piste and prob never will, but good to know
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I would have thought Cairngorm would suit you best and you can go to Glenshee for the day. But why not do a tour of all of them - Glenshee at one end and Glencoe at the other are a bit of a drive apart, but otherwise the distances are quite small.
feef, I've not found much off piste at the Coe - unless you mean little bits between the pistes.
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You can drive to all of the resorts in Scotland easily with a campervan, and park there easily. None of them have steep mountain roads, and all have easy access. Glencoe, Nevis range, and Cairngorm are very safe and easy to drive to. Glenshee is a little bit tricky sometimes, particularly when the bulk of the traffic arrives and leaves. It can get very congested at Glenshee due to the junction at Blairgowrie. Best to arrive in afternoon, and leave a few hours after the last lift closes.
There are official hookup points at Glencoe now. The others tolerate it in the car parks (i.e. they do not tow your van away because it is a motorhome)
For intermediates, all of the resorts are suitable. The snow is variable, can be great, can be crap, it is not always windy, but you have to pick your ski days according to the weather rather than according to when you have time. Otherwise, you will probably find crap snow or lifts closed due to wind.
Best time to visit is March.
All resorts are within a few hours drive of each other. Glencoe and Nevis range are about 20 miles apart.
The prices are fairly similar for lift passes, although there can be minor variations.
I would try and do them all, but check the ski Scotland website for snow conditions and pick the ones with the most lifts open and the best snow conditions.
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snowball, I was thinking more around Baillies Gully and the East Ridge
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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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We parked at Glenshee for 6 nights last year. If required they have now installed electricity points near the ticket office and piste basher garage. We took a generator and just ran it as and when needed.
In winter make sure you have some form of heating on in the van when you leave it. You do not want to get a burst pipe. Even a small dribble of water left in the system can freeze and burst a pipe - a repair bill in the shower room could be £1,000.
Check out Motorhomeski.com . They list 4 of the 5 Scottish ski venues and lots of helpful winterisation tips.
Regarding driving, we found the last roughly 20 miles to be fairly hard going (and lonely), it was dusk to dark and snow was falling as the road was rising. However we'd do it again. (to compare, we don't intend to drive to Les Arcs and would stop in Bourg instead for Les Arcs). The drive down in daylight at similar times to other people was far preferable!
Regards conditions, although we enjoyed ourselves, we will wait a few more years before we go again (young children) as the conditions are arctic not alpine! Of the 5 ski days we had 1 that was a beautiful blue sky day, and another where you didn't really want to be on the ridge to get to the blue run (well, not with a 5 year old anyway, oops!) and 3 days somewhere in between.
Hope you have a great time!
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You might like the Lecht as well, if you are looking for some fairly easy up and down runs. Not much for an advanced intermediate though. Again very easy road access, and parking is level and suitable for motorhomes. Very close to Cairngorm, and can do both in two days.
I doubt that the conditions will be cold enough in Scotland to worry too much about frozen pipes in your van. In Tignes however, you can worry about diesel freezing. (it freezes at -20C), so they put anti-freeze in it in the pumps in the ALPs.
The road up to Tignes and Val d'Isere used to make my small van overheat. Too much effort required to drive it uphill. I once got stuck on the way up to Tignes Val Claret when the roads were covered in packed snow and ice, and I had decided to drive without snow chains. The van would not move, and I had to put the handbrake on and put the chains on in the middle of a steep section. Not very easy when it was snowing heavily.
You are unlikely to require snow chains in Scotland. The only place you might need it is the car parks.
I did not usually require any heating in my van in Scotland. The weather is not usually cold enough.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I've spent the best part of 2 weeks in a camper in the Sugar Bowl car park below Cairngorm:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=57.146423,-3.679237&t=h&z=19
It's a bit of a schlep but I managed to walk to the lifts in my boots every morning. I also managed to attract the attentions of the local plod who were worried that I was lost out on the hill somewhere. Full marks to them for attentiveness!
There were some campers in the main car park but they were catching the worst of the weather up there.
Over the weekend, I stayed in the Rothiemurchas campsite which was fine enough but can get fully booked:
http://www.rothiemurchus.net/Pages/Stay%20Locally/Caravanning.html
Too far to walk from here but, if you didn't want to drive, you might manage to hitch a lift.
In the centre of Aviemore there is (or at least was) some free parking next to the roundabout by the police station:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=57.191958,-3.82899&t=h&z=19
Very nearby are some attended public toilets that also have hot showers for under 2 quid. I managed to spend a few nights there (in the car park not the toilets!) without any unwanted attention. Aviemore is a nice place to stay and wander up and down in the evenings. It's far too far to walk but I guess there is a bus that could take you up to the lifts to save you losing your pitch!
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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'd be interested in what the breakdown of the £1000 each is for a week's (presumably?) self catering. We've got a couple of weeks self catering booked from Scotland (Les Menuires and Chapelle d'Abondance) for quite a bit less than that so possibly you're including things we haven't?
Last edited by 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  on Wed 20-11-13 21:43; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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BigTipper, re: pipes freezing, the OP said Motorhome not Van. I too have stayed in a panel van and not needed to worry about heating apart from a bit of personal comfort in the mornings (I'm a southern wuss) but have had motorhome habitation pipe work freeze and get damaged in about -2 or -3 deg C. As Jon mentions a shower this is the easiest place for frost damage to occur in a motorhome in my experience. The fresh water system runs through quite thin pipes. The easy answer is to make sure the system is fully drained (including putting the shower head down so that even a cm of water can't drain back into the system) and to use water bottles, if not wanting to leave the heating on a minimum setting which only kicks in if it's cold enough. Oh, and our waste pipe froze overnight in Glenshee but defrosted during the daytime.
Altis, those Aviemore showers were my first experience of public showers, brilliant idea!
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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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I do not understand the need for a shower in a van which hardly has any water pressure. Surely a gas fired kettle, a basin, a cloth or sponge is sufficient! You can wipe your whole body with a wet cloth, it is easy. (hot water is a luxury, just use cold water) As for the need for a toilet (no 1), I just used a 5 litre petrol can and large funnel (just like a urinal). Then screwed the lid back on. Females can get adapters apparently. Your pipes cannot freeze then!
I rarely needed to go for number 2 in the van, but in an emergency I had a Tommy Tippee potty with some bags which had some fluid absorption material inside. You know the type, the ones that babies use! Ok it is not particularly hygienic, but I do not make a habit of doing it on the street. I would use public toilets, if there were any. (and some car parks have heated toilets nearby)
You can get those chemical toilets, but they smell nasty and take up too much space. Just do it in a bag like a dog.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just do it in a bag like a dog.
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You know some well trained mutts!
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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 see lots of dog poo in bags along the side of the path swiftoid, how they manage to tie a knot in it as well I do not know!
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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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Yes, but if this stuff already exists in the motorhome they are borrowing, they have to consider any risks to it! I would hate for someone to unknowingly cause damage to their in-law's van when it is easily preventable.
If you are fitting out your own van you can choose what to do with that! For short trips we choose not to fill the onboard tanks and we do use kettle boiled water to wash, because we do not want the faff of filling the tanks up, pumping it through the pipe work and then having to completely drain it after to prevent frost damage just while parked on our (relatively southern) driveway. I'll not describe my set up down the allotment
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| feef wrote: |
| snowball, I was thinking more around Baillies Gully and the East Ridge |
The time I skied there with Andrew in May it was unfortunately in thick cloud. We did do East Ridge and could barely see the snow we were on, which was a bit hairy, but not the Gully, where someone I believe had recently died in an avalanche - if I've got the right place.
Still quite limited compared to Nevis, though, I'd have thought.
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Thu 21-11-13 12:23; edited 1 time in total
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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 doubt that the conditions will be cold enough in Scotland to worry too much about frozen pipes in your van. In Tignes however, you can worry about diesel freezing. (it freezes at -20C), so they put anti-freeze in it in the pumps in the ALPs.
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The first time I went skiing at Glenshee, it was -20C in Braemar on the night I arrived. I wouldn't underestimate how cold it can get overnight in the Highlands in winter, particularly if you are parked up in the resort car parks, which are at a fairly high altitude at Cairngorm and Glenshee.
I would personally rate Glenshee as the best of the Scottish resorts for intermediate piste skiing. It is quite extensive and they tend to piste most of the runs shown on the map, which is not always the case elsewhere. Don't expect the runs to be immaculately groomed like they are in Europe though. And there will be rocks!
However, you need to decide where to go based on the conditions at the time; and ideally last minute if you want to be confident that there will be decent snow, reasonable weather and the lifts actually running (closure due to high winds is pretty common). It would need a very good spell of weather and snow conditions to make a road trip between the resorts worthwhile, which is very unlikely to coincide with dates fixed weeks in advance.
Some of the best skiing I've ever done has been in Scotland, but it's always been a last minute weekend trip decided on the Thursday lunchtime.
I'd also recommend taking your own ski gear rather than relying on hiring if you can. Perhaps things have improved in the last couple of years, but my experience before this was that you were lucky to get your hands on any hire kit at all, let alone skis/boots of the right size, and sometimes had to queue for hours! It was always first-come first served on a very limited pool of equipment and the main reason I decided to buy my own skis.
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Hi Jon, just thought I would add my bit as I think we are of a similar standard and enjoy the same type of skiing. We went to Scotland for a few days a couple years ago and over the 3 days we went to Cairngorm, The Lecht and Glenshee. We found Cairngorm and Glenshee the best skiing for our ability. I found the Lecht to be a bit limited and there were a few runs that were quite narrow (separated by a bamboo type fence). If I was going to go again I would just do these 2 resorts. We especially loved Glenshee (probably becuase we had a blue bird day too) but the skiing for our ability was spot on and even though one side of the mountain was shut there was more than enough to keep us occupied for the one day. we thoroughly enjoyed it. the cafe was reasonably priced too and not at rip off prices. We travelled up on a Sunday so we skied Monday to Wednesday and we hired our skis at the bottom of the mountain rather than renting them from in resort.
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I do not understand the need for a shower in a van which hardly has any water pressure
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Disagree! We have a shower in our caravan and I will frequently use it in preference to campsite showers. Pressure and flow rate often far better.
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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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Thanks for all the replies. Some good advice. It would deff be a last min booking so we can get good snow conditions. Really want to go abroad, but costs for les arcs are silly. swiftoid, 1k each is from 700each self catering in 1950resort, 200 lift pass and 100 ski hire...poss even more. Annoyingly with self catering, they charge for 4 people...there is 2 of us. We loved 1950 last time...better than hotels in the area. May look into going Scotland v early march. Be nice to get a couple of.days in. Would be during the week so hopefully not too busy. Will keep an eye on conditions. Thanks again for all tips
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I have just done a quick search on crystal website and you could go out the 18 Jan to la plagne 1800 self catering but with lift passes, ski hire and transfer included for £1284 for the 2 of you. All you would need on top would be food
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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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Jon Ford, Your 1k budget a head for Les Arc sounds extreme unless it's really 5* standard. I'd be looking at cheap even last minute deals in the Alps-If I follow your OP you would have went in January-usually the cheapest time of the main season IME.
Don't be fooled into thinking a week in Scotland will be cheap-I'm sure a heavy, loaded motor home doesn't get great MPG maybe 15 to 20 MPG? Rough back of a fag packet maths 700 miles @ 15 MPG would be approaching 300 without much effort. Even if you cook for yourself, take drink etc it will all add up. I've not ever bought multi day passes on on Scottish hill but figure on about 30 quid a day a head so aprox 180 for 3 days worth of lift passes.
The biggest negative is you can't really plan ahead with skiing in Scotland, you need to be able to pack your car on short notice and head up at short notice, you can get great snow, ice, mud, rain, wind and that's just in one day  Only kidding it's not quite as bad as that! If you're used to Les Arc the infrustructure will seem somewhat dated in comparison slower chairs and plenty of button lifts.
Reading the above you may think I'm a bit down on skiing in Scotland, I've had some awesome days skiing up there but I live 4 hours door to door to Nevis Range and have family who are 20 miles away so I tend to take my gear when I go to see them and if it's good I ski, if not I wait until next time.
On a good day it's as good as anywhere, on a medicore to bad day it's just not worth it.
I reckon even if you try to do it on a shoe string you'll be lucky to get much change out 700 to a grand if you eat and drink out a bit. I'd expect you can easily knock off 500-800 off your 2k trip to Les Arc. I think at the end of the day it comes down how much of a gamble you fancy?!
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You know it makes sense.
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Hi, Forgot about the post, so just read the latest. Think we have scrapped Scotland. Like most of the posts said, its a gamble and can work out expensive if poor conditions. Ive just been looking at the sale with Crystal and Andorra is comin up cheap. A couple of 4* hotels in Soldeu for £350-400 HB. Some are a 4min bus ride away but can handle that. Whole holiday for 2 is coming in at £1300 (inc lift and gear). Not a bad deal. Hotel has a better than average pool. Food reviews are mixed but good trip advisor reviews on the restaurants in resort. Maybe a good cheap alternitive to Les Arcs. Will google about the skking now
polo99, Looks like that offer has expired as not on the ewbsite now, but thanks anyway
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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 read your original post more carefully. Nevis and Glencoe are not really suitable for people who like cruisy blues, the skiing is too difficult. The other resorts would be more suitable.
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Poster: A snowHead
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thanks snowball, If we do go, I think we're going abroad. Just weighing up a nice week of skking over money!
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