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Ski weekend in Scotland

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Has anybody out there ever organised a ski w/end north of the border, coming from the London area?
What is the best way to get there: overnight sleeper to Aviemore? Fort William? or driving? coach travel? flying?
What are the pitfalls to look out for? What went well?
I know the snow/weather in Scotland isn't too reliable but assuming they have some which is the best resort for advanced skiers/boarders?

Any help gratefully received!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I've never done it from London, but have driven from Leeds. Best for advanced IMHO is

One day at Glencoe, spring run and flycatcher (v steep)
Day two in the Nevis Back Corries, never pisted and hardly busy with a real steep drop in.

Trouble is you need to go when the snow/forecast is good, which usually means making a decision Thur/Friday then heading up!

Useful info here http://www.winterhighland.info/general/

cheers,

greg
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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?
Im going up tomorrow for a few days.
The Cairngorm webcam leads me to suspect most of the time will be spent in the Winking Owl and Old Bridge Inn.

The old adage applies, skiing in Scotland is fun but if you get any skiing in at all, it's a bonus.

Nevertheless, nice to be in a mountain environment.
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theres hardly any snow! There is usually alot in the back corries of nevis range as they usually catch the snow when it snows and doesnt get blown away from there! to make u feel better, it isnt much better in canada at the mo esp whistler! Very Happy
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Cheers guys but I am mainly looking for tips as to the best way to get there from the London area: can anybody help??

Thanks for the website link gregh.
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the ice perv, fly to Glasgow- hire a car! Job done!
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
good option is to fly to inverness and drive from there (Cairngorm 40 minutes, Nevis Range 1.5 hours, Glencoe 1.75 hours)

would suggest basing yourself in Aviemore (Cairngorm), then you have reasonable access to all 5 centres.

conditions are improving, it's been snowing up here all day (Aviemore), but still a lot more needed to start the season properly
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Worth keeping an eye on www.winterhighland.com for its independent reports on the conditions and forecasts. Also, it hosts people's pics of their days on the slopes so it will give you a visual check on the conditions. Also, that will inspire/deflate you accordingly The forums are also good fun for moans/praises about the conditions and lift companies.

For info on the best run in scotland go to www.snowspots.org and Go to Glen Coe then Flypaper.

Driving to Scotland (if you have to)_
From beginning of M1 at Brent Cross to M74/M73 split (M74/M8 to go up west coast resorts, M73 for the A90 to Pertth for the Eastern ones) is about 6 hours - without delays. Cairngorm is 2.5 hours at quickest from there. . I tend to leave at night. Say 10pm-Midnight to get to Glasgow. To go all out to the resorts would be very stressful, best done with a posse of drivers. Fly and hire if you can afford.

Sleeper -wise. I investigated it last week

For Nevis Range the sleeper arrives at Fort William at 9.42am. Its a £7 taxi to the bottom of the lift. So it's going to be 10.30 before you hit the slopes. with lifts closing at 3.45/4pm its your call.

For Cairngorm, the sleeper gets to Aviemore at 7.42am. But its £12 to get a taxi to the base station.

It's £99 for a berth but a ssleeper-seat is £49.

What's put me off the sleeper for the weekend is the cost of the two day lift ticker. £44 for NR and £48 for Cairngorm. It better be full cover to make it worthwhile. If the Back Corries at NR come into condition I might just do it.

An alternative weekend for Londoners is to drive to the Vosges Mountains in France, very similar drive times to Scotland but better roads. see www.snowgo.com for our trip to La Bresse earlier this year. Lift pass is cheaper and they do night and dawn skiing so you can rack up the hours in a weekend. If you left London at lunchtime on a Friday you could be in La Bresse by midnight. On the sunday leave at 3pm and be back in London for midnight. You could rack-up 20 hours of skiing out of 48 hours their.
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Thanks SussexSnow, very useful info. Would there be a problem taking skis on the sleeper train? I hope not!

From what I hear Nevis has the best advanced terrain, with or without the Back Corries: is that your opinion too? I'm not Finlay Mickel but I wouldn't want to go all that way without some challenge at the end of it.

I know you can't rely on the snow up there, but what is usually the best time? March? Early April even? Or is it total pot-luck?
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No probs.

skis on sleeper - the bumpf on the scotrail site says room for six bikes so must be room for skis.

Nevis is good when in condition. it has the chairlift so feels proper. Some nice pics of the Back Corries to whet the appetite.
http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/pixalbum.php?pix_id=22

To guage the best time to go have a look down last years pics for NR ones in the end of season review link below. The rule of thumb is that IF scotland gets snow that consoldiates and gets a good base then it can be very good later in the season. April even May!. NR gets it s snow from different directions from Cairngorm so one can be good and the other shut (like it is today!). So need to do homework

http://winterhighland.com/cairngorm/pics_16_may_04.php

. But its ages since I was up there. Last time was on the first day of the millenium, riding melting ice in a rainstorm.....

Cairngorm has the area when in condtion.

best bet is to lurk in the WH forum http://www.winterhighland.info/forums/list.php?2. Triangulating the comments, the pics and the forecasts will give you a good idea of the conditions. If the Back Corries or something special at Cairngorm is brewing the buzz will be on the forums. The Mother of All Snow Ramping Threads gets a lot of daily comments on possibilities generally.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
.... and huge blizzards of optimism!
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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.
But feast your eyes on days like these: http://winterhighland.com/glencoe/pics_17_jan_04.php and it keeps the fires of optimism burning away.

That day came out of nowhere.
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 brian
brian
Guest
the ice perv, in terms of advanced terrain, all of the Scottish centres bar the Lecht have enough to keep you going for a pretty good weekend. However, if you're only coming up once in the season I would wait until March when the days are a bit longer and there's some chance a decent base might've built up.

My personal favourite these days is Nevis, especially if the Back Coire is open.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Well well well...

Set off more in hope than expectation on Saturday - just north of Perth a blizzard set in. 8" of fresh overnight.
Nothing forcast on snow-forcast so left the planks at home, had to pay to hire.

Half day sunday in limited vis, Monday shut due to road blockage and half day Tues in clear vis, but 45mph gusts. Could ski top to bottom.

Strong winds scoured a lot of the new snow away by this morning.

From what I hear the chairlift company struggles with resource to husband new snow, and so lose much of it. Two piste bullys out Monday but not doing much.

Cairngorm Hotel fabulous. Stag bitter ale.

Lots of fun, but hard work. Long drive.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
By the way, why are lift passes so expensive (£25 full area) when so few lifts are usually open?
Paying Alpine prices for basic facilities that arent available most of the time seems to go against the homespun improvised spirit of skiing in Scotland.
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 brian
brian
Guest
T-Dub, in an attempt to not lose any more money. They're at the edge of survival as it is Sad
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I really quite fancy it this weekend but the draw of a warm pub and the cerainty of watching my boys crush feeble scotchland in the rugby Laughing Laughing is currently outweighing the drag of the long drive to cairngorm just to the join the queues and queues and queues etc etc ....
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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?
Adam Holt,

I didn't find the queues in Scottish resorts any more serious than in the Alpes. Given the choice I would prefer queueing in Scotland as you can always strike a friendly conversation before and behind you.

Newcastle to Scottish resorts is 4+ hours drive and I don't mind that.

What I can't cope is the insufficient snow to ski on when the roads are open and when there is plenty snow the roads would be closed, not always of course.
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I've taken the sleeper up to Aviemore (Kingussie to be accurate) and it's an excellent way to travel. Obviously, it gets you there early in the morning, which may be good or bad depending on your arrangements in Aviemore. It's probably horribly expensive.

The skiing at Aviemore was the most unpleasant I have ever experienced by a factor of about a million, in every possible way; weather, snow, ice, lifts, day lodge (appalling food in a place which looked more like a gigantic public lavatory than anything else), transport to hill. It was probably 18 years ago so things may have perked up a bit by now. Good weekend, 'though.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
has to be said, we do have the friendliest queues in the world. Talked to more people in a day than a week in the Alps. However its like Scotland being the best football losers in the world.

It has improved. My trip to Cairngorm this year was the first for 15 years. Some service improvements have been made. The funicular is smart, and the Ptarmigan rebuild is excellent. There's even a lounge bar ar the top.
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richmond wrote:
The skiing at Aviemore was the most unpleasant I have ever experienced by a factor of about a million, in every possible way; weather, snow, ice, lifts, day lodge (appalling food in a place which looked more like a gigantic public lavatory than anything else), transport to hill. It was probably 18 years ago so things may have perked up a bit by now.


Ive had worse weather at Hintertux, more ice, rock, roots, grass and gravel in Borovets, worse transport to the hill in Adelboden, mercilessly overpriced food in Meribel, disgusting toilets in Sestriere and worse queues in Cormayeur and these were in the last 10 years at resorts some of which claim to be prestigious.

Its true, youve got to drop lucky in Aviemore and its fairly rare you do, so best to travel with the idea that any skiing would be a bonus, but the place does its best to offer skiing, so its kinder to give it a chance.

Why not admire the things it does do well. Mondays snow was excellent, queueing acceptable, the drive there fabulous, hospitality warm, beer and pubs excellent, language understandable, staff and public helpful, accommodation reasonable, breakfast fried, funicular and Ptarmigan restaurant Alpine standard. No Eurojostling either.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I agree with all the good sentiments about skiing in Scotland and am a great supporter of it and have been for a good while. I would be far more upset if there were no skiing here!!

saikee, If you've had worse queues elsewhere then you've been lucky in Scotland and incredibly unlucky in Europe. I have never repeat NEVER witnessed anything that even vaguely competes with what you can get in Scotland full stop. 40 minutes for a tow lift in -28 with windchill hmmmm nice!! another time an hour and a half for a lift ticket followed by an hour and 15 for my mate to get skis and boots followed by 40 mins wait to get the funicular .... almost ready to ski by lunch time!!!! ..... But it is all part of the experience and yes we are very well spirited in those long LONG queues.

Still favouring watching the mighty green army crush the scots this weekend. I love the way one relatively decent performance and the media here has Scotland winning the 6 nations. Heard a knob on real radio yesterday saying that "they were robbed last weekend but of course this weekend sees the first home game against Ireland and we'll win that for sure" ...... hmmm based just on exactly what!?!?!?!?! Shocked
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
T-Dub, if I'd had a good experience of skiing in Aviemore, I'd have been delighted to share it (there were no queues, but that may have been because very few people were stupid enough to be skiing there that day). I did make it clear that it was one weekend, a long time ago (probably more like 22 or 23 than 18, I'm afraid). There was no funicular then and the Ptarmigan thingy was shut (judging from the website, the current Ptarmigan building wasn't there then either). The skiing looks more extensive now as well or maybe some of the runs were shut. We were unlucky with the snow and weather, but the facilites then were an embarrassing disgrace (and widely acknowledged as such); I know that they are now much improved.

Off the hill, I found (and continue to find) the hospitality, beer, food and everything else as excellent as I found it during the five very happy years I lived in Scotland. We had a great weekend.

I also skied at Glenshee, about 28 years ago. In those days the facilities there were pretty awful, but not as sordid and depressing as the day lodge at Aviemore.
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I skied regularly in Glenshee in the last few years and found it quite cheerful, especially with a bit of snow and one can disappear into the deep end of the mountains quickly. Food is fantastic in Spital of Glenshee and Blairgowie also has excellent restaurants.

Last time I skied Caringorm the funicular was just opened and the place was superb and all white. Caringorm seems to have better snow than Glenshee.

I believe if there is 75% of the lifts open the resort will be enjoyable.

We can never get as snow as those in the Alpes but what difference does it make whether the snow base is 10cm or 100cm?

I am watching the Scottish resorts like a hawk the coming weekends.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
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saikee, things are looking fairly good particularly for cairngorm right now. But tell me this ..... when's the last time you can remember over the last 2 or 3 years that Cairngorm had 75% or more of their lifts open!? .... I don't remember a single day in the last 3 years where even 50% of the lifts were open!

Lets keep the fingers crossed that the weather stays cold and snowy!!!
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
saikee, things are looking fairly good particularly for cairngorm right now. But tell me this ..... when's the last time you can remember over the last 2 or 3 years that Cairngorm had 75% or more of their lifts open!? .... I don't remember a single day in the last 3 years where even 50% of the lifts were open!

Lets keep the fingers crossed that the weather stays cold and snowy!!!
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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.
Adam Holt,

Today condition as report by this site

Glencoe & Glenshee closed

Caringorm has 4/17 lifts open, Lecht has 4/15 and Nevis Range has 5/12 open.
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 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
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
23.5% lifts open .... and this is a very VERY good day for Cairngorm. I check the conditions every day.

www.cairngormmountain.com
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I should tempt fate more often .... check out Cairngorms lift status now! things are looking fantastic!!! long may it last snowHead
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
been snowing lots but looking at cam still not alot! yeah there maybe 23.5% lifts open but that doesnt mean there is alot of skiing as in general the cover is pretty sparce. there is little base so when the mild weather comes along it will melt. anyway enough of my negative observations things are looking good for the following week weather wise! i just wish it was never windy in scotland when it snows, mind you last weekend (5th feb) when it snowed, there was no wind!
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