Skiing In Scotland

Yeah, definately the case.

I'd imagine that they served something like a hundred metres of terrain that would barely be downhill but hey, some people enjoy it.

I will stick to my Montana and Utah turns. Don't even have skis or boots in the UK now.
 
Hi Admin,

Yes, portable tows were used. I skied on Sunday, it was just a bit of end of season fun really, nothing in comparison to what you guys have. The best run was actually at a lower altitude than the tows, so you had to walk down to the snow from above...odd feeling! The Ciste gully had 750ft of vertical, with snow lying down to 2100ft - pretty amazing for the end of June.

Here is a link to some pics from Sun
http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/pixa ... pix_id=650

This Winter has been the best in living memory in Scotland. We have always had great terrain but highly variable snowfall. This year the snow came from unusual directions, east and north and it just kept coming steadily throughout the winter.

q, I wouldn't give up skiing here quite yet. Here is a selection of some of my best days skiing this winter. All shots have been taken either within a ski area or touring/hiking to nearby mountains from a ski area. The pics are not always in sequence but it gives you an indication why I still ski here as well as Europe and the US.

Glencoe 23rd Jan
http://www.winterhighland.info/publicre ... 1890#start

Nevis Range 20th Feb - Back Corries
http://www.winterhighland.info/publicre ... 2027#start

Nevis Range 21st Feb- Back Corries
http://www.winterhighland.info/publicre ... 2036#start

Nevis Range 5th April - Back Corries
http://www.winterhighland.info/publicre ... 2215#start

Cairngorms 11th April - 4 grade 1 gully's epic.
http://www.winterhighland.info/touring/ ... 2242#start

Nevis Range (incl hike to Carn Mor Dearg) 12th April
http://www.winterhighland.info/touring/ ... 2243#start

and finally here is a little video one of my friends took on the weekend of the 20th/21st Feb.

http://vimeo.com/9654022

Hope to see you on the slopes next winter!
 
I for one am impressed with the terrain in those pics. I think q is nuts to turn his nose up at that quality of skiing within daytrip distance.
High Rustler":1y90p45q said:
We have always had great terrain but highly variable snowfall.
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Sounds like a description of Mt. Baldy. You don't want to plan your ski seasons around it, but when it's there you should take advantage.

I do have a basic question for High Rustler. What is the access to terrain in those pics? Slackcountry from lift served skiing, or is it all earned turns?
 
Hi Tony,

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

All of the Glencoe terrain is accessed directly from the top T bar with no more than 2-3 mins traversing east or west to reach the terrain featured.

The Nevis Range terrain is also lift accessed. 5-10 mins fairly level walk from the summit poma depending on where you choose to drop in. There is a chair to aid return, but it does not bring you back directly to the top of the mountain. To return to the summit involves a 20 minute descending traverse to the frontside of the mountain then 20 mins ascent via 3 lifts. Just over 60 mins per lap - so no opportunity to do huge vertical but fresh tracks can be found all day long if there has been recent snowfall. The pics of Nevis Range show descents of Spikes(2),Easy Gully(3) and and the area around Climbers col (4) on the map below.

aonachmor.jpg


Cairngorms terrain was accessed by skinning up for an hour from the ski area car park before the lifts opened - taking the funicular would reduce this to 10 mins hiking. Once there, it's 10 mins on skis across a plateau before accessing the first gully (Diagonal Gully) Skiing Diagonal leaves you in the Loch Avon basin 40 mins skinning or hiking from the ski area. The next two gully's - Castlegates and Pinnacle are a further 50 mins hiking away. The final gully - Alladin's Couloir is close to the ski area. 10-15 mins from the summit. We skinned back to it on our return. Total ascent was around 5000ft to ski all four gullies and took around 9 hours. A map of
Alladin's couloir is featured below (no3 on the map)

sneachda.jpg


Carn Mor Dearg is around 90 mins from the summit of the Nevis Range ski area and involves hiking a ridge to the summit. Very seldom skied but very worthwhile in the right conditions. Maps are courtesy of Highland Instinct (cheers Jamie!)

All of these areas are between 90 mins to 150 from my doorstep so I can easily leave my decision to go until the night before and travel up and back on the same day. Scotland is not a ski destination, but if you know where to go and are fortunate enough to get the right conditions it can be a very interesting place to ski.
 
Also find the pics fairly impressive for someplace not particularly known for skiing. With the variable snow, how often skiable? Every year, but for only short periods? I assume even the easy to get to runs such as Nevis you are on your own avalanche wise (not controlled in any way, as is the European norm).

I'd heard about the big snows in the UK this year (work trips by others in our company, etc...), but never have really seen much for pics of the potential.
 
EMSC,

All of the terrain featured in the pics is very rocky so requires a reasonable depth of snow to make it skiable. This year most of the terrain has been skiable from Dec to May but normally it would be Feb to late April or May. Before Feb there is usually skiable terrain but not always some of the steeper lines. Even in lean years most of what I have featured can be skied, if only for a much shorter period. Experience and local knowledge helps greatly in determining what can be skied and when. (pretty much like everywhere else I suppose!)

The Scottish Avalanche information service provide daily avalanche reports across 5 separate mountainous areas in Scotland from Dec to April and this is an invaluable resource for skiing here. There is very little avalanche control so skiing is very much at your own risk. I always take my shovel, probe and transceiver. We have more avalanches here than many people think, so it's very useful to be aware of how the snowpack was formed, weak layers etc Wind plays a huge factor in shaping the large cornices that form and a lot of avalanches are as a result of windslab. Two experienced skiers I know were caught in a 1000ft slide in February this year but thankfully apart from a busted knee and broken skis they were ok. The mountains here are small but not without danger.

I should add that Coire Dubh (featured on the Nevis Range map) is avalanche controlled whereas Coire an Lochain is treated as backcountry. The avalanche control is fairly basic compared to the US. As far as I'm aware explosives haven't been used for a few years (possible issues with obtaining a licence to store the explosives etc, but I'm not sure TBH) Ski patrol will remove weak cornices etc and put up bulletin boards with advice. Given the limited resources they have they do a very good job.
 
The pics are so nice and beautiful. Thinking of planning a trip to Scotland soon. By seeing these pics I am unable to stay here. Going to plan a trip in next month only. I love skiing and wish I could have a good company in there.
 
A review of this thread and pics reminds me some of my Australia and New Zealand experiences. Scotland's weather is probably worse on average and the scale of NZ backcountry is much bigger, but the surface lifts, in-bounds topography and avy control issues seem similar to what I observed recently at the NZ club areas. I'm guessing the larger drive-up population base would make the better winter weekends much busier, more like Australia.
 
Tony Crocker":1xr6lfah said:
I'm guessing the larger drive-up population base would make the better winter weekends much busier, more like Australia.
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I don't know about that? Most people I meet from England during trips out Western Canada or the Alps, mentioned there never ski at home. Yes, I did asked them about Scotland.

Scotland (even prior to this post) have been on a list of places I'd like to ski. I guess you could put on ...island skiing category. I've skied on the Laval and Montreal islands... other islands that would be fun to skied on: North, South, Hokaido, Scotland, Iceland and Hawaii, etc...

Oh yeah, thanks High Rustler for the beta.
 
Scotland's population is 5 million, slightly more than Sydney's, or the entire country of New Zealand. That should yield more than enough local daytrippers, even if the Scottish ski areas get nothing from the rest of England.
 
Scotland's population is 5 million, slightly more than Sydney's, or the entire country of New Zealand. That should yield more than enough local daytrippers, even if the Scottish ski areas get nothing from the rest of England.
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Very true. At weekends, in good snow conditions, queues of 20 minutes at key lifts are not uncommon at Cairngorm and Glenshee. Further west, Glencoe and Nevis Range receive less skiers and queues are typically less. Last season at Nevis Range I cannot recall ever waiting more than 5 minutes in a lift line even on a powder day. Midweek is a different experience, vastly reduced numbers mean queues are rarely an issue. Interestingly in the last few seasons, the "average" skier has packed up their skis by the end of March, leaving full cover and much quieter conditions for the remaining skiers in April.

Skier day figures for 2009-2010 season

CairnGorm 144,000
Glenshee 116,614
Lecht 52,147
Nevis Range 34,886
Glencoe 26,135

The total number of skier days last season 373,782 was the highest in 14 years.

Total Skier Days (for all areas) from 1990

1990 360,438
1991 627,995
1992 148,732
1993 375,955
1994 543,005
1995 473,434
1996 430,169
1997 243,486
1998 165,102
1999 299,878
2000 265,426
2001 366,121
2002 237,635
2003 152,681
2004 164,502
2005 147,500
2006 154,816
2007 78,431
2008 165,200
2009 159,885
 
Wow, that's a marked dropoff since the early to mid-90s. And with 2009-10 being a "good" year I don't know how Glencoe can stay in business.
 
Wow, that's a marked dropoff since the early to mid-90s. And with 2009-10 being a "good" year I don't know how Glencoe can stay in business.
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Indeed. Around the mid-90's cheap flights to Europe started to become more common place and as a result many more skiers from England chose the Alps over Scotland for their school term time family breaks. Glencoe was very close to going out of business before the start of last season. It was taken over in an 11th hour deal by a local businessman and has recently been set up as a Community Interest Company (CIC), which should help efforts to secure funding. Glencoe is a very basic area but it has some amazing terrain for such a small area with its signature run, the Flypaper, an unpisted black which tops out at just under 45 degrees.

Press release – 13th Sept 2010 – Glencoe Mountain Ltd

"Glencoe Mountain Ltd changed its status to a Community Interest Company (CIC) on the 1st September 2010.

The purpose of the CIC is:-

To actively develop Glencoe as a leading provider of outdoor activities. To promote Glencoe, Lochaber and the Highlands of Scotland as the Outdoor capital of the UK and to assist the promotion of economic stability for the local community. To open skiing and other outdoor activities to disabled and under privileged members of the community. Surplus from the activities of the Community Interest Company will be reinvested within the company and specific bequests made to local causes.

The aim is to develop a ski centre which is run by the community for the community.
Profits generated within the CIC will be re-invested within the centre and the surrounding area to improve the experience of all visitors to the area.

The management at Glencoe Mountain resort hope that the new CIC status will open doors to additional funding so that they can upgrade facilities at the centre.

Glencoe Mountain is the countries oldest ski resort established back in 1956. It has a great history and some incredible skiing including the steepest black run in the UK but it has suffered from a severe lack of investment over recent years, with much of its infrastructure very near the end of its life.

With funding and the support of the local community the management team are sure that they can turn around the fortunes of the centre and develop it into a 21st century tourist attraction that the whole of Scotland will be proud of. "
 
HighRustler":3tymab7s said:
Wow, that's a marked dropoff since the early to mid-90s. And with 2009-10 being a "good" year I don't know how Glencoe can stay in business.
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as a result many more skiers from England chose the Alps over Scotland for their school term time family breaks.
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I would blame ones of Tony distant relatives for this, Tony MacCrock.
 
The Scottish skiers are being sensible, as Patrick alludes. You can tell from those fluctuating skier visit numbers of nearly all daytrippers that conditions are wildly erratic. So it makes sense, as for SoCal and eastern skiers, to hit the locals when they're good but plan the advance weeks elsewhere.
 
Following on from my recent post which contained the link to Jamie's Scottish ski video 'Wake' I have now finally completed my own little slideshow capturing the excellent Scottish Ski season 2009-10. I've had it on my 'to do' list since June so it's completion is not before time! :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv2qrFpC_Ac&hd=1 Best watched in HD 1080p or 720p..

The music is also of a Scottish flavour if anyone was wondering...

Merry Xmas!
 
High Rustler":31bl0ywd said:
This season has started very well
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The British Isles are not exactly lacking in consistent precipitation. So I assume the issue with Scottish skiing is whether that precipitation is liquid or solid. I have read that this December is the UK's coldest in 100 years, which should be good news for Scotland's ski areas.
 
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