 Poster: A snowHead
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We should have been heading off to ski in France tomorrow morning. Obviously we are not going and everything has long been cancelled, but I note that snow conditions in the Alps are currently amazing, and half a metre of fresh snow is forecast today in the region we would have been visiting, around Grenoble. (Gutted is an understatement - but I realise this is a trivial hardship compared to what many people are going through as a result of the pandemic.) Instead, I thought I'd write an "alternative" trip report live from Edinburgh, where the hills happen to have fresh snow to rival a few past Alpine holidays! I therefore intend to post daily about the joys of the local Pentland Hills, until Saturday 30th January when we should have been flying back. OK, it's not comparable to the Tarentaise or the Dolomites, but we have 11 days of annual leave which can't be moved and I have to fill it somehow 
Day 0 - Allermuir 1600 (the biggest ski area in the Central Belt!)
Current lockdown restrictions in Scotland seem to be somewhat less strict with regard to exercise than they are south of the border, with the result being that most of the Pentland Hills are within reach for Edinburgh residents. I didn't appreciate the Pentlands fully until 2020, but now realise how lucky we are to have such great walking territory so near to the city. It's only 5 miles from Edinburgh Waverley station to the top of Allermuir Hill - the first summit in the chain (493 m / 1613 ft) - and even less from my house. It feels a bit weird to be up amongst the red grouse and windswept moorland with the residential streets of Swanston and the hum of the city bypass just below:
Allermuir's northern slopes incorporate Midlothian Snowsports Centre. Somewhat surprisingly, this is Europe's second longest dry ski slope, boasting a handful of pistes, a drag lift and even a chairlift. Here's the snowsports centre from above, with Edinburgh in the background:
Since this is snowHeads, I should probably post a wintertime photo of the hill too, taken from Capelaw Hill to the west just before the New Year. There were a few ski tourers about even if conditions weren't quite Alpine.
Tomorrow I'll introduce you to another part of the Pentlands, with some more up-to-date photos taken this morning.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 23-01-21 21:48; edited 1 time 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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@denfinella, great photos - could have saved the second for the guess a ski area thread 
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Awesome photos. I took the skis up West Lomond in Fife yesterday, no where near as much snow as in these pics but I did manage about 300m of vertical ski down.
Spent many a night camping up at Bonaly reservoir in my younger days- water gets lovely and warm for swimming(it's not a functioning reservoir any more before I get a row!) and you can sit and look over the city lights twinkling at night.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Pic from West Lomond in Fife yesterday- about 30 miles north of the pentland hills
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I never thought for 1 minute that with all this working from home that work would get in the way as there is nothing else to do but the weather this weekend in Edinburgh has been fantastic with blue sky’s to match the alps and I have to work
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@alasdair.graham, thanks. The Lomonds are of course visible from much of Edinburgh and they look very enticing - we just can't travel there! We don't have our own skis, unlike half of the population going by the number of tracks appearing on the Pentlands...
@Jonny996, shame! Hope you get a chance later in the winter.
Day 2 - The deep south
Yesterday (Saturday) we should have managed an afternoon skiing after our early morning flight to Geneva. It would have been a low visibility affair, as heavy snow moved in around midday. Instead, a bluebird Edinburgh day beckoned - but being a weekend, the main car parks for the Pentlands were going to be exceptionally busy. We therefore headed down to West Linton, in the extreme south of our current permitted range. -5°C at 9am... brrr.
An avalanche at 450m on Turnhouse Hill has been making the local news in recent days, and it was easily visible from the main road. It looks innocuous, but the crown wall has been estimated by the local mountain rescue team to be 1.5m high.  Avalanches have also been recorded in the last few days on Castlelaw Hill and Carnethy Hill, on similar aspects.
West Linton is a tad under 5 miles beyond the southernmost corner of Edinburgh council area at East Cairn Hill. It's fairly near the southeast flank of the Pentlands but the hills in this area are relatively little-visited so the paths won't have benefited from much boot trampling. Instead of struggling though snow drifts, we had an easier walk up to the rather obscure West Water Reservoir. Out of the village along the "Catwalk" to Lynedale House, then along an icy track around the north side of the golf club.
Grey and moody was the theme of the day, as we'd managed to find the only part of the Lothians stuck under low cloud / fog 
Pea soup at the reservoir, but rather atmospheric on the walk back around the other side of the golf club.
Passing place not in use (note the ski tracks - lots of these today):
Tomorrow I'll post about today's exploits, which were even colder!
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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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@denfinella, Just Fab, loads of memories flooding back of hill walking in the Pentlands with the Outdoor Ed department at school. I hope Edinburgh schools still have Outdoor Ed departments but I suspect not.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Brilliant
Especially the ice shots
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You know it makes sense.
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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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@denfinella, really great photos, thanks.
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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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My uncle worked at Ferranti on Robertson road, and lived in Balerno. We used to spend every summer down there and walking round the Pentlands. Love the area.
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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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Lovely, @denfinella, amazing photos of that ice. 
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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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| jafa wrote: |
| My uncle worked at Ferranti on Robertson Avenue, and lived in Balerno. We used to spend every summer down there and walking round the Pentlands. Love the area. |
. Realised it was Avenue not Road!!!
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Quite right, @jafa, and my father also worked at Robertson Avenue for many years (after Crewe Toll) - small world!
But on topic - this is a brilliant thread, with great photos. For me it also brings memories of the snowy winter of 1963 (my second year on skis) when, with friends, I made a ski traverse of the Pentlands from Balerno to either Nine Mile Burn or Lothianburn (can't really remember - it was a long time ago). And that was on standard alpine skis with cable bindings, no fat skis!
Who would have imagined then that today I could ski from Leogang to Saalbach and back, on a bluebird day (just to make others jealous ). And that was with much less uphill slogging than in the Pentlands!
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@pam w, it was lovely to see!
Thanks @espri. You'd definitely have been able to get between Balerno and the other side of the Pentlands on skis at times so far this winter too. (But Saalbach it is not.)
Day 8 - Sun's back at last
Today should have been our last day in the Alps before flying home this evening. Back in Edinburgh, the sun has returned in time for the weekend, after 4 days of cloud, fog, rain and sleet. However, there's been a big thaw and most of the low level snow has melted - though there's been the faintest dusting of new snow since then outwith the city ring road. Higher up, the Pentlands are still white (though with considerably reduced snow cover), and there's been a new avalanche on Caerketton Hill, with the crown wall and debris visible from Straiton.
I wasn't expecting quite such good weather this morning, so had a late start and by the time I'd got myself sorted out there was no point in doing anything before lunch. In the afternoon we went for a wander around the Edinburgh Technopole (Science Park), which is a slightly weird, semi-rural industrial park on an old estate just beyond Straiton. It was very wet underfoot from all the snowmelt, with lots of standing water on the paths, sometimes with a layer of old snow / ice over the top.
No particularly exciting photos to share, but here's one looking across to the distant Pentlands this afternoon showing the current state of the snow cover:
If we had been able to get out to the Alps this week as originally planned, there would have been a lot of snow, rain and wind, and not much sunshine - the last few days in particular might have been pretty grim... just like it has been in Edinburgh, in fact
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FAQ
though it's at least looking dry for the weekend. I can usually see the Pentlands out of my bedroom window, but poor visibility has prevented that. There will either have been a lot of rain or a lot of snow up there! Anyway, back before the run of rubbish weather...
