 Poster: A snowHead
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This week's snow storms are giving the long-awaited Scottish ski season a kick-start. Lifts are being cranked into action ... and runs are being groomed.
The current storms are giving the easterly resorts - Cairngorm, Glenshee and The Lecht -the maximum benefit. In the west, Glencoe has plenty of skiing, and Nevis Range is also operating.
All reports from the hills welcome.
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An RAF helicopter which went to the rescue of an injured climber on Scotland's best-known ski mountain, Cairngorm, was forced to abandon its mission by severe weather. Ice and snow coated the helicopter's rotors, despite the pilot finding it too dangerous to land on the mountain itself.
The incident occurred on Monday and the helicopter has been stranded for two nights at Glenmore [correction - see posting of 2 March], which is at the foot of the mountain. The climber was eventually rescued on foot by members of the Cairngorm and Kinloss Mountain Rescue Teams.
Reports from BBC News ... The Herald [more general report on the severe weather sweeping Scotland]
Here's the current scene from the Cairngorm base station webcam:
http://www.cairngormmountain.com/cams/image.jpg
As far as skiing's concerned, the mountain is currently stormbound. This was the situation at time of posting (quoting Cairngorm's website):
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| CLOSED: The road is still affected by severe drifting. Heavy snow showers also continue to fall making clearing the road very difficult. This situation will be reviewed at 10am. |
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| Weather conditions: Forecast for Wednesday: Heavy snow showers with severe drifting. Extensive cloud with bases around 750m, lowering in showers. Temperature -7C. Winds will be Northerly 30 -40mph. |
From the reports, it would seem that The Lecht is also receiving a long-awaited blast of snow.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 2-03-06 14:33; edited 6 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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An update on the stranded chopper:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4762036.stm
With the impending snowstorms, the RAF are not expecting to rescue the rescue helicopter until next week.
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| RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team have set up camp at the scene to guard against trophy hunters or someone trying to start up the helicopter. |
All three 'eastern' Scottish resorts - Cairngorm, The Lecht and Glenshee - are reporting vast improvements in snow cover, with many runs now filled. Cairngorm and Glenshee opened some lifts today. Access roads to The Lecht remain blocked.
Information:
http://ski.visitscotland.com/conditions/
Reports/discussion/photos:
www.winterhighland.com ... www.highland-instinct.co.uk
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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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looks awesome out there on the webcams at Cairngorm, waist deep drifts at the top around the webcam!!
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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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Here's a 'trial webcam' shot from The Lecht this morning:
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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This just in, regarding the helicopter:
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Meanwhile, an RAF helicopter stuck on a mountain has been put up for sale on eBay.
A prankster has offered the Sea King Rescue 137 on the internet auction site under the name SAR (Search and Rescue) Seaking. |
Source: DailyRecord.co.uk
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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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Looking at Cairngorms site looks like there are some good offpiste routes down the east lady and hut route. Should be awesome at the weekend especially if they can open the daylodge, wwand the FR pomas at a minimum. At the moment the ciste and ptarmigan tows aren't running, can't be vis today looking at the webcams so maybe they are taking a lot of work to dig out from the drifts?
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Dave, the SAIS avalanche bulletin is indicating level 4 for the Northern Cairngorms and level 3 for the Southern Cairngorms, so this might influence the opening of the Ciste. It's such a lovely run that I should think there's always punter pressure to open it.
SAIS report:
http://sais.dcs.gla.ac.uk/latest_forecast/
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Back to the helicopter story:
I think I got facts wrong on the location of the chopper. It seems to have made an emergency landing on the mountain itself, having been unable to reach the climber in Coire an t-Sneachda.
There's a great report here on photographer Sandy McCook from Press & Journal who climbed to the scene on skis, for two hours in nasty conditions, to get the exclusive photo shown:
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/photo/2006/03mar/060302raf.shtml
He deserves a new pair of Dynastars for that!
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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 tend to agree with the summary at the bottom of DG's link. That guy is a selfish fool.
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You know it makes sense.
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I think that's a bit unfair. He got back fine, with the photo, and probably went up there with survival kit. Maybe the local rescue team approved what he was doing.
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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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markP,
Have you ever been into Coire an t-Sneachda in poor conditions? It is a relatively easy walk/ski in route finding terms via the Northern Corries path from the ski centre car park or from the Glenmore gates. I've done it in poor vis and high winds before, but not in deep snow and route finding was not dificult. If it had been up on the plateaux that would have been a different matter and I wouldn't have been tempted, but Sneachda I'd probably risk.
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brian
brian
Guest
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Coire an t-Sneachda was *on* piste for a while. They put some snow fencing in, starting from the top of the Fiacaill Ridge poma over into the Coire and back round to the Cas. It was on the piste map at the time. Don't know when it was removed ?
Edit: removed in 2001
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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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markP,
Mark I am sorry, but what the photographer did is not high risk , or even that unusual. I have done certainly more than 50 winter days climbing in the northern corries and navigation, even in a real Gorms blizzard is not that difficult if you know what you are doing . That includes the plateau ( which has several good "landmark" features for navigating in poor vis)- it used to be my "lazy" walk in from the ptarmigan until the funicular was built and climbers were stopped from using the lift top station as an easy approach route  . If you are ever up at caingorm keep skiing until the lifts close, then wait in the carpark bar for a while - a steady stream of climbers ( often a surprisingly largenumber)will be coming back from the northern corries ( and Loch Avon ) and they will be there almost regardless of the weather!
The helicopter does look like it was "landed" extremely well ( not so surprising given the skill level of the pilots).
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Maybe it is a fairly easy route to take, but there was surely a risk of getting lost, after all he didn't know exactly where the helicopter was.
Just because he got back fine doesn't mean he wasn't being selfish.
But in light of the extra information I'll reduce his foolishness by 15%....
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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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brian,
Love the comment (in your link) about putting the coire back to a near naturel state with the removal of the fence. Have they never seen the northern corries footpaths - very well engineered and unobtrusive yes, natural no  ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| markP wrote: |
| I tend to agree with the summary at the bottom of DG's link. That guy is a selfish fool. |
Sounds like another ignorant comment from someone who does not know the area well, does not know what the conditions are, or know the skill and experience level of the photographer who took the photos. The chopper is not a huge distance from the ski area, and the ski area was open, does that make CML and the skiers and boarders out there wreckless and selfish fools too?
The conditons may not be the sort that you would go either skiing or climbing in, but you are in no place to make such judgements of those that do have the skills, the experience, equipment, ability and desire to ski in such conditions.
All to often I hear people complain that the "ski area shouldnt be open in conditions like this". If you don't like it you dont have to be up there, but that doesnt give these people the right to deny others that choice.
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I'm not laying in a damn scrape on the plateau for 10 hrs again for anyone hehehe 
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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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Winterhighland, I think perhaps an apology might be in order. You are of course right in that I made a judgement without sufficient knowledge to do so.
I wasn't aware that it was so close to the ski area, and that it was done during the day, which of course makes a big difference to my assumptions.
I was having one of those days yesterday unfortunately.
I'm glad I've been corrected though, and I'd like to point out that I myself am not one of those people you refer to. I like nothing better than skiing in a whiteout.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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markP, 
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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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More wall-to-wall snow cover (pretty much) from the Scottish mountains, courtesy of Winterhighland.com:
Nevis Range 2 March
Cairngorm 2 March
Interestingly, this is almost a re-run of the 2004-5 season, in terms of the winter really taking off. 3 March 2005 was a classic on Cairngorm:
Cairngorm 3 March 2005
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Interestingly, this is almost a re-run of the 2004-5 season, in terms of the winter really taking off. 3 March 2005 was a classic on Cairngorm:
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It better not disappear as fast as it did last season  .
Looks like my weekend to Cairngorm is cancelled because of road conditions. The club aren't going to risk it, and are going to tour on the Buck near Huntly on Saturday. I'll probably join them and then go over to Cairngorm on Sunday. Drove back from Huntly last night in horrendous conditions - road itself was OK , just was so much snow coming down I couldn't see where the road was!
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You know it makes sense.
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Dave, my mammy was just telling me that Grampian is forecasting worse conditions for next week, I said excellent and she said stop being silly. it is also the first time she can remember hearing thunder and seeing lightning during the snowfall.
We had it here (thunder lightning and snow) last week.
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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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obelix67, sounds like fun!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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crazy_skier_jules, yup - saw a snowblader in your style at Champery this week - unfortunately my camera on my cell phone corrupted all the pics from this week and my mate never got a pic - all black with black spikes on helmet and a black face mask on...I thought of your post on the black ski wear thread.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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More snowy photos, from ...
... Glencoe 2 March
... by Andrew Napier and John Walker, on the Winterhighland site.
This one sums up the fabulous view you get of Rannoch Moor from the Glencoe ski area. Remember it well!
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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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Those rotor blades look as if they will be permanently warped with that amount of ice building on them, but I'm no aircraft engineer.
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Max take off weight for a Sea King is 9750kgs, which is all supported on the rotors. Doubt a bit of ice will damage them.
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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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Christopher Berry has filed this useful gallery of shots of Glenshee's skiing today 3 March:
click here.
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Nice photos, but did you see those wrecked ski bases 
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Judging from this report, maybe the best way to access Nevis Range (Fort William) or Cairngorm (Aviemore) this weekend is by rail ... if the lines are clear.
Anyone having problems just getting to all that fab snow this weekend, and are you winning?
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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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David Goldsmith, just looked and if i'm quick I can catch a train and be in Fort William in less than 26 hours with a return journey on Tuesday (with a mere 5 changes!!) for the bargain price of £225.
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FAQ
. Snow is forecast on and off for the next 5 days (limit of the forecasts I've seen) so they may not be getting their 'copter back for a while.
