 Poster: A snowHead
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Lecht now has a couple of tows Open, I should know which ones but I’ve forgotton - as well as rope tows and magic carpet. Very cold, it’s showing -13 just now in my weather station at the bottom paddock and supposed to be colder tonight so I’d say -20 tonight. Off for a tour on Cairngorm today.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
| Off for a tour on Cairngorm today |
Will be interested to hear what snow cover is like @orange - given that cover on the webcams looks great from top to bottom and Cairngorm is infamous for not opening when they probably could 
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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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Was out munro bagging in the southern Cairngorms on Wednesday - there are significant drifts in some areas but with the consistent cold temps and moderate winds a lot of areas were fairly wind-scoured as for once the snow has had cold enough temps to stay light and powdery. Would be surprised if there is much in the way of skiable terrain (or certainly enough to merit lifts opening) that's not been enhanced with manmade snow across much of Cairngorm.
There will definitely be some pockets and stashes out there for the dedicated ski-tourers though!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| mountainaddict wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Off for a tour on Cairngorm today |
Will be interested to hear what snow cover is like @orange - given that cover on the webcams looks great from top to bottom and Cairngorm is infamous for not opening when they probably could |
Have a look at SAIS blog. While the Cairngorms look white the snow remains without a base for now.
Basically unconsolidated cold winter snow over granite rock.
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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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Local chat from people in the outdoor activity industry is CairnGorm could be open to the top. Mid mountain would only really be for access or those who don’t care about the odd core shot - maybe the White Lady! But the M1 could get people to the Top Basin, the Traverse and M2 are well filled and held a base before the current cold snap. Lower 105 to mid station is an issue, but if the Ptarmigan Restaurant was open, people could stay up top. A few short bits walking near mid station is preferable to nothing above mid station open.
But remember, the clowns get paid regardless of whether any coin goes in the till or not, so why bother?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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M1 was being test run today. Car park tow was running. Ptarmigan bowl and M2 have full cover and rime covered lifts with no spring boxes on them. Zig zags were fine. Didn’t see WL in detail but looked full from a distance and in right aspect.
Conditions were variable - lots of good skiing on fresh on consolidated, lots of baseless heavy and rocks ! Grand day out, little wind, sun and epic sunset.
Edit: -14 already here
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Thanks to all for the responses re. conditions 
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I skied Cairngorm today. I was shadowing in the lower beginners area most of the day and the snow there was fine. After lessons I went up the car park T-bar to mid mountains n level. Tow track was very stony and the piste back down wasn’t any better. There really wasn’t enough snow. This came as a surprise to me as I live near Aberlour and the snow round my house is 20cm deep. It’ll all be gone by mid-week anyway.
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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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| Quote: |
| It’ll all be gone by mid-week anyway |
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| Valkyrie wrote: |
| ... There really wasn’t enough snow. This came as a surprise to me .. the snow round my house is 20cm deep.. |
Scottish skiing relies on a good regular freeze/thaw cycle to set up a solid base.
If the snow stays cold and light it easily gets transported by the wind from the more exposed slopes (hopefully building up deeper cover on lee slopes and in the gullies which will then become consolidated for good late season skiing)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The South and East sides of Cairngorm were fantastic on Saturday. Packed powder on Numbers and Ciste Mhearaidh made for some lovely skiing. Absolutely enough snow to have top lifts working, just zero will to do so as per usual.
But yes, it has all gone now.
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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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| Meltus wrote: |
Absolutely enough snow to have top lifts working, just zero will to do so as per usual.
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That seems very harsh to me. I was skiing the open areas on Saturday and Sunday and it was taking a lot of effort just to keep pistes skiable up to mid-level. Top might well have been fine but the descent routes back to mid-level looked fairly bare and would have been extremely difficult for beginner/intermediate skiiers.
I was really surprised at the weekend to see quite a few folk with touring kit who basically couldn't ski. I watched one guy with all the gear fall over five times trying to get down a green run!
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Just looked at the Webcams for Glencoe, Glenshee, Cairngorm.
Dreadful stuff, got to feel sorry for those operating (the first two) these areas.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
| Dreadful stuff, got to feel sorry for those operating (the first two) these areas. |
Glencoe at least looking a bit better. Let the snow dances continue!
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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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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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Must have experience in reading pithy meaningless press releases with a straight face on funicular repair and in decommissioning said funicular while at all times deflecting blame from HIE.
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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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Is that a typo glitch in the job advert?
Looks like a junior salary for a senior CEO.
£85k ($100k) is what they pay 22yo software coders in California.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
Is that a typo glitch in the job advert?
Looks like a junior salary for a senior CEO.
£85k ($100k) is what they pay 22yo software coders in California. |
That salary probably swallows the turnover without the blank cheques from HIE every month.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
| Looks like a junior salary for a senior CEO.£85k ($100k) is what they pay 22yo software coders in California. |
The only differences being it's not a software coding job and it's in Aviemore! Otherwise, fair points, well made 
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Went to Glencoe today. Didn't realise it was opening at 10am and got there at 8:30 so just had a coffee then skinned up to the top of the access chair by which point the plateau poma had opened. Mildly grumpy about the 10am opening as there was no wind so did feel like they could've opened at 9am with a slightly earlier alarm...
Anyway, we musn't quibble. Took Plateau & Cliffy with the intention of skinning to the top but Mrs Meltus had been feeling a bit ill all day and it took a turn for the worse so we had to have a sit down - the patrollers very graciously let us in the hut which was a novelty. Ended up tootling around for a couple of hours.
Thrombosis and The Wall were closed but you could pick your way down easily enough with some nice powder stashes interspersed with boilerplate that sometimes came as a bit of a surprise in the flat light. Can see why they weren't open officially as there would have been bodies everywhere.
Slightly curtailed day but still glad we went. Would've been cloudy at the top anyway (is what I'm telling myself)
Full price ticket with about 10% of the area open and late opening but that's par for the course with Scottish areas these days.
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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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| Meltus wrote: |
Went to Glencoe today. Didn't realise it was opening at 10am and got there at 8:30 so just had a coffee then skinned up to the top of the access chair by which point the plateau poma had opened. Mildly grumpy about the 10am opening as there was no wind so did feel like they could've opened at 9am with a slightly earlier alarm...
Anyway, we musn't quibble. Took Plateau & Cliffy with the intention of skinning to the top but Mrs Meltus had been feeling a bit ill all day and it took a turn for the worse so we had to have a sit down - the patrollers very graciously let us in the hut which was a novelty. Ended up tootling around for a couple of hours.
Thrombosis and The Wall were closed but you could pick your way down easily enough with some nice powder stashes interspersed with boilerplate that sometimes came as a bit of a surprise in the flat light. Can see why they weren't open officially as there would have been bodies everywhere.
Slightly curtailed day but still glad we went. Would've been cloudy at the top anyway (is what I'm telling myself)
Full price ticket with about 10% of the area open and late opening but that's par for the course with Scottish areas these days. |
They'd advertised 10am opening today I think as they'd been unable to get on the hill much over weekend with weather and were relying on snow overnight to get a lot of stuff skiable, so all the donkey work had to be done this morning. Delayed opening was just to give the staff across the hill a fighting chance. I think one of the chairs had been banged up by winds on Friday too so they were working on that as well.
Credit where it's due, Glencoe is (by a fair way) the best of the Scottish ski areas for being open and honest with the punters about what's going on on a daily basis.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| mountainaddict wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Looks like a junior salary for a senior CEO.£85k ($100k) is what they pay 22yo software coders in California. |
The only differences being it's not a software coding job and it's in Aviemore! Otherwise, fair points, well made |
It's still a staggeringly low salary for a CEO role.
Would expect to see that level of pay in some of the outsourcing hotspots, like Vietnam or India or South Africa, but not the UK.
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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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A free lifetime pass for the funicular though.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
| mountainaddict wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Looks like a junior salary for a senior CEO.£85k ($100k) is what they pay 22yo software coders in California. |
The only differences being it's not a software coding job and it's in Aviemore! Otherwise, fair points, well made |
It's still a staggeringly low salary for a CEO role.
Would expect to see that level of pay in some of the outsourcing hotspots, like Vietnam or India or South Africa, but not the UK. |
It's not really a CEO role though is it, you can make as many decisions as you want but ultimately HIE pulls the strings so can kibosh them all. They will get an 85K general manager who I'm sure will be competent at doing what HIE say.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
| A free lifetime pass for the funicular 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:
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Glencoe looking promising, with snow now down to car park level 
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Poster: A snowHead
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I’ll report back, working Wed onwards
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@orange, are you working at glenCoe?
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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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Yep, Patrol
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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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@Whitegold, stop stirring
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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.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@orange, how close are they to opening the upper mountain?
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Last bit of uptrack is scoured due to the winds last weekend , it's been pushed up and left rough to catch drifting and i think they were going to check it again today (I'm off today). Variable cover from the top though so a bit more snow would help all round.
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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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Cairngorm was good fun today, T-Bar and Poma access from car park all the way to the top for the first time in a long time. Bit thin in places but otherwise very nice snow.
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Up at Glenshee this morning and I have a childish level of excitement waiting for the lifts to open. Funny, because I rarely get this excited in the Alps despite infinitely more extensive and reliable skiing.
Scottish skiing is like an old classic car it needs time, attention and patience but the rewards can be great and live with you for a lifetime.
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FAQ
hopefully the snow stays