Snow in Scotland

Looking good, went to Cairngorm a while back and almost got thrown off the mountain for skiing off-piste in a nature area...which i know nothing about. Apart from that it was awesome, snow was good too.
 
never been, but some friends went a little while back, it is super dependant on snow conditions, but at the mo it looks pretty awesome!
I really want to go, but i live near the south of england and it actually will work out far cheaper/ better value for money/quicker! to get to the south of france to the alpes for me than to drive up to scotland....

saying that i really want to go and will go at some point, maybe early next year, late jan sometime... if the snow is still around!
 
Been to Scotland but never skied there. Last time I went to the UK in winter I vowed to never do it again. I was there during some freak storm, like the most snow they had gotten in 100 years, in an area that was completely flat with no skis or places to ski for miles, and it was so cold that you could only be outside for like 10 minutes at a time. Shit sucks.
My grandma lives on the england/scotland border and she said on the 26th it was like -16 there or something.
 
At the moment the snow is excellent (best I've seen it this early), was up on Christmas Eve and there was good skiing to be had (went to the Lecht). Just don't expect any park. Has snowed over the weekend since then as well so there was some great skiing to be had (read reports of waist deep powder at Glenshee although I'm not sure how believable that really is).

Snow looks to be staying for at least the next week according forecasts, I expect it will stay through January, so there should be good skiing to be had for most of Janaury.
 
The Lecht are normally quite good at making the most of the snow so I expect to see some rails set up shortly. Also started a jump at the top of the Falcon and half way down the Buzzard though looks like it still needs a good bit of snow.

I found the powder not to be waist deep at Glenshee on christmas eve atleast. Unfortunaly it took me to go through a couple feet of it onto a decent sized rock, snapped my ski, chipped my shin I reckon though doctor thinks it will be fine. Would've taken photos but didn't even want to look at my leg cause it was stupidly swollen.

Anyone selling any skis in UK? Just needing twin tips don't mind about condition around 165 - 175cm?

 
snow conditions look unreal?! do the scottish ski hills ever have parks though? i head of vans doing a set up a couple of years back but never saw any pics!
 
heres some sick photos from this week in scotland.

http://is.gd/5GYMq

there are 5 resorts in scotland. lecht- http://www.lecht.co.uk/ glenshee- http://www.ski-glenshee.co.uk/ glencoe- (doesnt have a wesite that i could find) nevis range- http://www.nevisrange.co.uk/ and cairngorm- http://www.cairngormmountain.co.uk/

and yes cairngorm has had a vans park setup for the last couple of years. To my knowlodge none of the other resorts have parks.

for latest conditions- http://ski.visitscotland.com/conditions/

 
Epic. Thanks for posting those. That looks like fun. How often do they get conditions like that in Scotland?
 
snow is awesome! but by the reports of the avalanche deaths and injuries people just aren't used to it, Scottish ski patrol sort of need to up their game with educating the public who have never heard of avalanches in Scotland.
 
well this is really early on in the season for sure and right now the snow is epic. The snow does get like that quite alot in the season. And i dunno if this happens in the us or canada but runs start getting really patchy and most of the time your heather hopping. But freeride conditions are apparently amazing in Scotland and i will have to sample some this season.
 
oh and the lecht has a pipe cutter, as the owner has a snowboarder son who really wanted a pipe to train on (or so ive heard) but i have never seen a pipe at the lecht.

Sorry for the double post.
 
The recent avalanche deaths in scotland, are due to buried surface hoar. I have seen a lot ofsurface hoar this month, when out touring. But surface hoar is rarely seen in scotland, because of the maritime climate we have.

Getting after some on carn nan sac on monday 28th december 2009.

12620486241.jpg

 
Yeah I didn't believe it when I read it (was over the weekend/Monday). That is typical Scottish powder by the sounds of things. My old Public Enemies bases are gouged so much due to hidden rocks in Scotland. If the conditions are good enough I hope to take by new Kung Fujas out for a day riding without damaging them before I head to the Alps in 4 weeks time.

Never knew the Lecht had a pipe shaped, never seen one though. When I was up there on Christmas eve they only had to rails set up (flat box and the battleship) both under the chair. There were no jumps but some side booters/bumps that were jumpable. Cairngorm is the only one with a designated park in Scotland although all their website say they have a terrain park (at least Glenshee's used to claim to have one).

Here is where I read the report of waist deep powder (which I didn't believe): http://www.winterhighland.info/

Rough snow depths can be seen of the Ski Club of GB's site (which also if you are a member gives you 20% during weekdays (10% at weekends) at Glenshee and 10% at the Lecht everyday (not sure of the others). http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/snowconditions.aspx?intCountryID=96&strSortOrder=Country

@ Robo you looking for used I take it not new skis?

Anyone heading up any days next week? Going to try and get one day in before my exams (14th of Jan) and then one after before the Alps (22nd of Jan).
 
I've seen a pipe at the lecht once before. This was ages ago when I was tiny. I remember skiing across it so it couldn't have been that big. Owners son does manage to create some nice jumps and there are a few nuts riders.

On the point about snow depth in Scotland its hard to measure this as most centres rely on drifting snow, hence the snow fence lining the hills. This season so far has been pretty calm so we've got consistant cover where as often its often just strips of snow between the fences.
 
I think the problem the with the halfpipe at the lecht, was the transitions were to steep and the snow wasn't sticking.

That my guess, but i could be wrong.
 
Thanks for putting your photos up...looks so much fun! Just nuts that it's in the UK! Got to get up there at some point!
 
This thread has been highly educational for me. I had no idea what hoar was. I'm guessing you are referring to a layer of ice. So Scotland got snow; it must have gotten warm or rained, then it got cold again solidifying the old pack and then they got dumped on with new light stuff, creating high slab danger. Crazy to think that people are getting buried in avalanches in Scotland.
 
Surface hoar forms on cold, clear

nights with a clam or nearly clam conditions in the lower meter of

air.

Surface hoar forms on the surface of

the snowpack as a feathery crystal, that ranges from, less than a

millimeter to over several centimeters in size.

The instability come from storms

depositing new snow on top of surface hoar creating a weak layer.

Witch them becomes buried surface hoar.
 
I've been to Nevis Range, but it was summertime so all they had was mountain biking, which looked pretty fun. I love the highlands.
 
I'm not sure how big the crown wall

was. But the slide ran 150 meters and was big enough to seriously

injure or bury a skier or snowboarder.

01%2BJan%2B10%2B009.JPG

 
The basterd cut hafe my post out....

Today at glenshee.. There was a slide on the south-east faceing slope of carn aosda at 850 meters.
 
Nasty, wouldn't want to be caught in that. It just go off itself or what triggered it? Certainly a risk some people won't take into account because its Scotland.

Will be heading up on Monday (either Glenshee or the Lecht, will make the decision on Monday based on snow/weather), guess minimising off-piste would be a good idea with the conditions as they are (Lecht should be better in this respect than Glenshee).

Anyone else going up then?
 
I think it, was trigged by a

snowboarder.

The conditions are pretty sketchy right now,

with widespread instability by elevation and aspect. So careful route

choice and low angle terrain would be the best option, right now.

I will be heading up to glenshee on

monday for a short tour. But i'm not sure were i'll be heading yet.

I'll be keeping an eye on the avalanche bulletin and weather for

now. So I can plan my tour carefully.

 
OK.

Yeah, they aren't great at the moment. Had a look at the report (http://www.sais.gov.uk/) the other day and the risks are still pretty high. So I would agree with avoiding the really steep stuff but I wasn't planning on doing much of it anyway.

Will still look around and see what I can find around the pistes if I go up to Glenshee (trying to get a fair number of people to head up). Should still be some good skiing to be had either way, especially with the recent snowfalls.
 
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