 Poster: A snowHead
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I was just looking through the historical reports for Glenshee from this season and it is pretty ridiculous. I visited on the 6th of December and the snow was unreal yet for the first week in December the snow totals indicate n/a or as I would assume from that 'Closed'. Surely whoever was providing the ski club with the information should be providing accurate details or actively informing the ski club of snow depths. Should this be a priority for them next season? (I didn't ski much else where this season but I can only assume the story is the same if not similar across the board, the snow depths described for the February weekends are pretty inaccurate to me as the depths I witnessed even around the ski school hut were far deeper)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Shall we start again on here? 
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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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The same goes for the period just before and during the EoSB at Val Thorens where the new snow didn't seem to register. I assume the Ski Club rep had left by then and the resort no longer wanted to attract new clients since they were about to close the resort, so didn't bother to send the Club new figures.
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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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| Surely whoever was providing the ski club with the information should be providing accurate details or actively informing the ski club of snow depths |
No one provides that information to the SCGB, nor is it measured except by the SAIS which are at different locations every day . Nor in terms of skiing conditions is it relevant in a maritime climate where the majority of snow on a ski run didn't get their vertically from the sky but drifted in, possibly some time after the snow fall.
As I understand it these depths are for a lot places not measured, but based on some mathematical model that aims to translate precipitation data into average base depth - can anyone shed any more light on this? It would certainly go some way to explaining the usually absurdly low figures quoted for the Scottish Ski Areas if such a formula calculated for the Alps was being used to predict base depths here.
I had this debate with onthesnow.com early this season, initially they were concerned about their report data being inaccurate and asked for an alternative. I explained the situation about snow depths and I offered to provide them depths based on sampling from observed depths at fixed points and from SAIS figures where relevent. They said they would get in touch with their data provider as the data was fed in as an XML data set. They got back to me saying their providers provider ( SCGB ultimately) said that their data and reports were correct and current and that the person who complained to onthesnow.com clearly didn't know what they were talking about.
The reason I got onto onthesnow.com is that a lot of these generic sites, because they cover so may countries and thus have so many in links are climbing higher and higher in Google rankings. Certain combinations of search phrases, resulted in many listings of SCGB rehashed (and often old) reports before actual valid reports. On many days people could search for a Scottish Ski Area on-line and be told that there was no skiing, when there was actually good conditions.
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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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In that case, IMO, Scottish ski hills should be more proactive in providing this information because I know a few people who use it as a source of 'how much snow is there' or 'how much snow is there likely to be'. I would imagine the traffic on Ski Club website during the winter would be a pretty decent number.
I understand the information is collected (when not provided by reps) from resort websites, could ski.visitscotland be the culprit? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| I understand the information is collected (when not provided by reps) from resort websites, could ski.visitscotland be the culprit? |
No, because the resorts don't measure this sort of information so they aren't getting it from the resort sites or Visit Scotland. The information provided within a SCGB report largely has either no meaning or is irrelevant to the whole Scottish Situation. Not least because the information required for day trip planning and making last minute decisions on where/whether to go in the morning is completely different from that which the SCGB provide on a 5 day a week basis for people considering week long plus holidays.
It's not unknown for CairnGorm to update Ceefax for example more than 10 times in a day, compared to 0 times for a weekend for SCGB reports. Which is useful for deciding where to go on Saturday morning?
With regard the Glenshee figures, the deepest cover reported on upper slopes by the SCGB was 62cm. During the first half of Feb the SAIS continuously reported depths > 350cm on Meall Odhar adjacent to the Caenlochan Poma.
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For the 15th of February which we could call the '3rd week of the month' the skiclub historical report shows a depth of 50cm. The largest depth for the month of February and the season was 82cm.
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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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I drove down past Aonach Mor and Glencoe last sunday, they both looked skiable from the road still. Tons of snow on the Ben.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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II,
Very nice, I was in cycling mode though and not skiing. Saturday was rank but sunday was glorious even popped briefly onto your Island.
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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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Looks like there is more snow now than during some of the ski season - especially on the back. If I lived a bit nearer than London I'd be up there with my skins.
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