 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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A bit drizzly this morning and rather flat light but the snow is good and no Queues. Plenty of challenging skiing choice 
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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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After a sudden, devastating thaw at the Scottish ski areas since @Peter S's decent weekend report, there's been a bit of fresh at Glencoe. Credit to them, they've been trying hard to get some limited terrain open.
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Yep access, Rannoch, coire pollach, plateau and cliffy open tomorrow, bit scratchy but you know better than nowt 
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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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| bit scratchy but you know better than nowt |
Indeed @orange! Hats off to The Coe 
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Delighted to report that thanks to a huge effort by the hill crew most mid and lower mountain runs are now open again.
Subject to demand the Access Chair, Magic Carpet, Rannoch Chair, Coire Pollach, Plateau Poma and Cliffy can all now run.
Looking like a cracking day tomorrow (6th Feb) with a moderate SW wind and sunshine.
Sledging slope and beginner area in great shape. |
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Update on Cairngorm Funicular today - from their own Facebook page:
"This morning, the Cairngorm Ops team are delighted to be starting their series of maintenance activities, checks and inspection requirements on the Funicular electrical, mechanical and hydraulic systems. These are carried out prior to a site visit from an engineer from Garaventa, who will be onsite later in the week to carry out scheduled annual inspections of the mechanical systems. We will update later in the week with our progress. This series of activities will involve frequent movements of the carriages up and down funicular viaduct between the base station and top station.
Cheers
Ops 1"
So no passengers yet but at least it's moving!
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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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| That they can now move the train implies that the track support system has been signed off. The train just needs an annual inspection and re-commissioning after sitting idle for so long. |
That makes sense @Valkyrie but (after the 6 or 7 year nightmare) it's just odd that they haven't shouted from the rooftops that the track is finally fixed!
Still some great ski terrain up there (despite the limited uplift  ), so I'm hoping they can ultimately get their act together and get back to operating normally.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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^ exactly that. Let me check my calendar, February, mid February now what exactly happens then ? Oh yes of course it’s half term so let’s put some word soup out there to make people think that by some divine miracle the Funi will run again and entice them up to play the ball runs, drink hot choc and maybe ski on the sliver of snow factory snow. They always do these tests, but nowt to do withy the actual problem.
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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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You know it makes sense.
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| Glencoe is sunny and sheltered today in the easterly airstream. |
Fantastic first thing @Peter S, but the weather closed in a bit from early afternoon - especially when we skinned up a bit above the top of the Cliffhanger Chair. Some nice snow and a bit of a wilderness experience.
Bitter cold all day, with mainly decent snow on the open runs. Narrow in places and a fair few loose rocks had appeared on piste by the close of play, but Glencoe has done brilliantly to be open given current amounts of snow Good to see a lot of cars in the car park - not too busy on the slopes and a lot of sightseers, walkers and sledgers.
We're currently dining in the ski area cafe ahead of a stay in one of the microlodges. I can recommend the chilli con carne! 
A few snaps - the ski area is the top right mountain on the second one, taken from Rannoch Moor.
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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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mountainaddict,
Great photos!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Fantastic weather in the morning. Its terrible here in England although on the positive side it is snowing at Yad Moss and Weardale all day 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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The recent Facebook albums by British Backcountry Courses from CairnGorm are worth a look.
In short there is more snow on CairnGorm than on Meall a’ Bhuiridh. The difference? Glencoe needs coin in the till to pay the wages. CMSL does not, HIE signs a blank cheque each month, so the ‘team’ don’t need to bother.
Ridiculous random few snow guns turned on for 24 hours the other day, all that’s been achieved was using a T40 to sufficiently ice up a TR8 it stopped working after a few hours.
CairnGorm has all the funding, all the gear and absolutely no idea. If it can’t survive without a monthly cheque from HIE, shut it down and relieve Scottish skiing from this albatross around its neck.
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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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| Quote: |
| Cairngorm has all the funding, all the gear and absolutely no idea. If it can’t survive without a monthly cheque from HIE, shut it down and relieve Scottish skiing from this albatross around its neck |
It's just awful, @haggishunter, it really is... 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Been another bad season for Scotland.
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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.
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@mountainaddict, and as we all know the best skiing is usually spring in Scotland
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| and as we all know the best skiing is usually spring in Scotland |
Fingers crossed @kitenski! See you at Glencoe in April/May!
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Heading up to Glenshee tomorrow and breaking my normal rule of not going during kids holidays. Today it looks very busy on the single poma uplift to the one open run, the queue looked to be about 40 long when I looked at about 3.
Anyway we are heading up to test out Kim's knee before booking a ski trip for the end of March. She tore her ACL and MCL last march and wants to try it out before committing to a week in Ischgl.
We will try to get there early for a couple of hours before it gets too busy. It's far from ideal condition but with the way the weather is going there may not be another chance before it's too late for holiday booking.
It looks like a thaw will set in from Wednesday.
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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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Well we arrived at the car park at 9.25, and were on the poma less than 30 mins later, no queue at the ticket office at that time and about 4 rows of cars in the car park. There was also no queue at the poma at that time either.
We then packed in about 40 mins of quick runs up and down the plastic which had a good covering of mostly man made snow. Since there was no discomfort from Kim's knee we decided to pack it in as suddenly the queue went from a couple to 30 or more. Went for a quick breakfast at the cafe and then headed home and we're here by 12 noon.
Bit of an expensive 40 mins of skiing but it achieved what we wanted. Now got the green light to book a week in Ischgl.
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Bit heart-breaking seeing how things are panning out in Scotland this winter.
The last two winters in London have been wet, windy and mild so was no surprise about poor skiing in Scotland.
But we've just had (and still having) a proper cold winter with max temps often no higher than 5 degrees, and sharp frosts continuing into March, so really bad luck that this hasn't translated to a bumper season in Scotland. Really hope things pick up during the rest of March and April. There's something magical about skiing in the UK.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If the West Coast base takes the beating it looks like getting this week, then given the medium range forecast trends, the clock is ticking loudly for the West Coast. CairnGorm and the Lecht can come back from zero to hero in April, even in May. Much much less likely for the West and Glenshee, they can't benefit from those cold Northerly plunges that with strengthening spring sun can drive huge convective shower cells off the Moray Firth into the Northern Cairngorms. 2012 is the classic example of this!
At Glencoe, the upper mountain really needs big Westerly or SW storms bringing snow, to drive the base into the deep gullies and natural snowfields. There really has only been one of these so far, Storm Eowyn - that was just too brutal for the upper mountain! Even if Glencoe does not ski again this season, this will not even be close to the worst season in terms of skier days or days skied.
However, it is now beginning to look possible - that in this, the 70th season of commercial lift served snowsports on Meall a' Bhuiridh, for the first time the upper mountain lifts will not have spun at all. 
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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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sad webcam view, I've physically been here with more snow at the end of May in previous years. Suspect even lambing storms won't rescue this now?
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You know it makes sense.
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Grim stuff for Andy and all at Glencoe given all the work they very visibly put in to make the most of it every season.
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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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@kitenski, Thats awful, and - likewise - i have skied there, gone to the base and everyone is in shorts and t-shirts stopping off on the WHW.
But that is the worst I have seen it.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I'd say that's the end of Patrol work for the season, there's so little snow everywhere high from E to W. And as said before top lifts haven't even spun while the mid mountain had periods of good coverage. Rode my bike in shorts yesterday and was HOT. Not good but who knows what will happen next.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| @kitenski wrote: |
| Suspect even lambing storms won't rescue this now? |
It will, the lambing season is everything for Britain ( although I’ve never heard of this term “ lambing storm”) and on the hills of northern mainland Britain often a good snowfall has rewarded the bide their timers.
One of the great things about Scottish skiing there’s always a chance. No chance and we ski on grass like candied throrex who married a oriental but great skills.
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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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It's a disaster.
Worst season for Scotland of all time.
The snow has vaporized.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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It's all so sad. For years I relied on Scotland for my skiing fix, but over the last few years I've been going to the Alps. There's a terrible irony in that. In the past there has been some fantastic skiing there up to May and sometimes beyond. Ten years ago Glencoe had full mountain ski almost anywhere cover above the chairlift right through April. Such is the speed of the changes upon us I wonder if those days have all but gone now. Skiing in Scotland was aways something very special. Fingers crossed the SSW does the Highlands a favour.
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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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Rose coloured spectacles?
Over the last 30 years I've had only a handful of really good days in Scotland (and plenty bad), all these good days combined would be eclipsed by any one of my trips to the Alps over the same time period.
Perhaps I've just been unlucky with Scotland or its hayday was prior to this.
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I've got photo evidence of many amazing times skiing in Scotland. However, you do have to pick your dates. Unlike the Alps you can't really plan to go, unless you are prepared to take what comes. Whilst I've had some amazing times there, some of the very best, I've also had several of the very worst ever skiing experiences there. It was opportunist skiing which is fine if you live in Scotland or the north of England. Not so great for anyone in the south, the Alps are closer! I really like - or liked - the attitude at Scottish centres, much more fun than the factory feeling you can get in some of the larger alpine places. Some of the skiing over the back at Nevis was, on a good day, dare I say it, better than the alps!! (you can't really say that, but it was a good as it gets) I live in hope I'll be back there one day or another
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When the Gulf stream collapses Scotland will return to the temperatures its latitude should produce.
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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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Ptarmigan Tow back in operation on CairnGorm, wide but away from the fences baseless cover in the Ptarmigan Bowl. Looks set for a fairly bright weekend, probably need a bit more snow or drifting for the Ciste Tow, but adventurous types could probably get to the Daylodge - certainly skin tracks up and ski tracks down!
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| Ptarmigan Tow back in operation on CairnGorm |
Good to see - that and the ski touring possibilities.
I see they're charging full wack (£36 ) for day tickets for the Ptarmigan Tow, plus the insignificant Polar Express beginner lift and the conveyor next to the Daylodge.
Clearly a demand at that price, as ticket sales are currently suspended, while they assess capacity. I suppose you could argue it's better value than a snowdome and you're up a proper mountain!
Cover in the Ptarmigan Bowl looks more than cosmetic - might be worth a pop north with touring kit?
And nice to see the rest of the hill looking white I've certainly skied the lower slopes (combat style!) with less snow.
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FAQ
(ie the same issue that millions has been spent on so far 
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