The Summer Solstice is fast approaching once again, so it’s time to dust down the planks (they shouldn’t have gathered to much dust with the last day of lift served sliding being 5th May this year) for the mid-summer snow pilgrimage.

Since the 21st of June is a Saturday, the plan is Saturday on CairnGorm Mountain. We’re keeping an eye on Meall a’ Bhuiridh but the Main Basin has sadly had a bit of a shift with a return to less settled and wetter conditions. Final details and day will depend on the weather, if the Sunday is looking better then we may Switch, keep an eye on this blog and the Forum.

The intention at this stage is to meet in the Daylodge Bar on CairnGorm Mountain between 10 and 10.30am.

However the actual Summer Solstice is at 23.59hrs BST on Friday 20th.  If the weather is good a mid night slide and a camp or snow hole night may be in order, if interested drop a comment below or in the forum thread.

At least 200ft of vertical is still possible on the SE snow patches so enough to get a very respectable run in and build a good kicker.

Winterhighland operated it’s own webcams for the first time in winter 2008, with our White Lady webcams being viewed 1,290,923 times during the 2008 season.

Initially 2 then 3 cameras situated in the Scottish Ski Club Hut at 2500ft on CairnGorm Mountain offered a range of views up the White Lady and out over Coire Cas, the camera views have been adjusted for summer and will remain available when the system is not at base for further development to improve the camera system for next winter.

During May Winterhighland has been trialling a Logitech Auto Focus webcam in the SSC Hut, this has given great image quality and we will be looking at upgrading the cameras to give sharper views all round as well as developing a more interactive interface for viewing recent images, archived images and latest cam video clips.

This was partly a developmental system to test out the scope for using relatively low cost but higher grade USB consumer webcams as opposed to expensive IP network cameras - providing scope for utilizing low cost hardware in locations where harsh operating conditions could be expected to shorten the operating life or in some cases destroy IT hardware. The successful use of GPRS in a location with a poor and marginal GSM signal offers greater flexibility for locating cameras and the system provides scope to have camera systems which can be deployed in different buildings and huts to provide the most useful views.

Here’s to there being at least as much snow again to watch on the cameras in 2009.

Winterhighland was experiencing server problems over the past couple of days. The forum is currently down this evening to evaluate it’s impact on server load while we work with the hosts to find a way of avoiding recurring server crashes which have occurred over the past few days.

Please give feedback below on whether you have found Winterhighland to be faster, slower or no different from normal this evening (between 5pm and midnight).

The winter of 2008 is becoming the season of two halves and two coasts, early season the East took most of the snow and all the glory with absolutely fantastic conditions at Glenshee in January with extensive and very good sport also on offer at CairnGorm and the Lecht too. However after a settled spell of weather over half term giving great weather for being in the mountains but more limited terrain than in Jan, the weather patterns have shifted bringing the type of cool zonality that favours the West, big time!

Unfortunately for the East such a weather set up results in the thaws making it through but often not the snow which is gobbled up by the Western Mountains.

The end result is that people have seen the good conditions fade away in the Eastern two areas, some oblivious to the manor in which the thaw cycles that wrecked havoc in the East were having a different and altogether more positive effect on the West Coast, where the sheer strength of the early season storms had driven snow to considerable depth into the various gullies and deep natural snow fields. As hard as some of the thaws and bursts of torrential rain tried the depth of snow in the gullies on Meall a’ Bhuiridh and Aonach Mor could merely be slightly dented, each time the re-freeze arrived it only served to set up the rain saturated snow even harder than before giving a bomb proof base which the March snows have gradually but steadily been building on.

Scottish weather is fickle and the effects of a stormy maritime climate on snow cover complex, there can be huge variations from not just one coast to the other, but from one aspect to another on the same mountain or even within the same Coire. It is thus not unknown for half a mountainside to be devoid of the white stuff, while the other half is loaded with deep beautiful powder; such is the way of things in mountains where snow cover is built up not by the snow that falls from the sky, but largely by the snow that drifts around once it has fallen. This focuses the snow into terrain depressions such as gullies and stream courses that form the natural snow fields and allows these features to accumulate snow depths that are disproportionately large relative to overall snow fall, thus creating ski runs which far outlast the general cover and survive thaws and temperatures far above what average climate stats suggest is possible.

In short what this means for the Western Areas of Nevis Range and Glencoe, plus CairnGorm Mountain (which being in the middle geographically and in style of terrain to some extent gets the best of both worlds) is that SPRING IS KING in Scottish Snowsports.

Storm cycle after storm cycle, refreeze after thaw after freeze gradually builds up a base that usually does not peak on mid and upper levels until well into spring.

The best conditions for snowsports on the Scottish Mountains thus often come only after the time that risk of low level snow in large areas of population has markedly declined. Tell someone today that the Western Highlands is offering some of the best snow conditions in Europe and some of the most natural riding around and make sure they check out the photos too. Don’t even think of taking out the golf clubs or putting the toys in the loft, an epic weekend is just days away.

Oh and usually as spring advances, the slopes become quieter and any notion of queues a distant memory, but don’t tell everyone!

Saturday 15th March 2008 - Dates in your diary now folks!

At the start of the week, I built and put live the website for the inaugural White Lady Challenge. The premise of the event is simple, to raise money for Disability Snowsport UK and/or the Cherished Uplift Fund’s White Lady Appeal by completing as many descents of the White Lady (or alternative ski run) as you can in one day.

Participants can choose whether to split their sponsorship money between the causes or donate to one or the other, and while the challenge its self should be great fun (if hard work for those taking it really seriously and aiming for an ‘Everest’ on the White Lady) there is a huge amount going off on CairnGorm Mountain on the day in Question - Saturday 15th March.

Up top in the Ptarmigan Bowl the Highlander Skier/Boarder freestyle event hits the ‘Gorms terrain park, meanwhile the Ski ‘n’ Boardroom has teamed up with numerous gear companies to bring in several boarding and ski manufactures to demo new 2009 boards and skis - and we’re working on getting more kit up the Gorm!

So you can undertake the White Lady Challenge while checking out the latest toys and if you want a break from bashing the White Lady, Ripcurl will have pro riders and instructors on hand to offer tips and advice on all things park!

In short it’s going to be one big fun day with stacks going on,  full details and to sign up for the White Lady Challenge visit the website at http://whiteladychallenge.org.uk .

The webcam system in the Ski Club Hut was restarted and all three webcams and the Weather Station were functioning as normal again as off early afternoon on Sunday.

The earlier mist eventually cleared, though it continued to come in over higher runs at times, but by dusk the skies were clear above Strathspey.

A couple of photos from the Club Hut Balcony looking out over Coire Cas and up the White Lady.

Looking out from the Hut Balcony over towards the Fiacaill.

The webcams and weather station at the Ski Club Hut on CairnGorm have been experiencing communication difficulties and the system appears to have gone down as a result.

Increased visitor numbers in the area could be contributing to less network availability. A site visit to check on the system will be undertaken on Sunday morning and if neccessary refresh rates will be turned down to try and help get regular images through.

This will be updated from CairnGorm on Sunday morning with further info.

Unfortunately some sharp wet snow showers in high winds followed by a sudden drop in temperature late on Wednesday evening saw to the anemometer at the Ski Club Hut, which has remained a solid lump of ice since.

If wind direction is changing and the wind speed is reported as zero it’s a good chance that the wind sensor has succumbed to icing.  Drier snow and or cold temps don’t cause problems, its when we go from marginal snow to below freezing that does it.

Wednesday afternoon ahead of the approaching winter storms we’re expecting over the coming few days we’ve installed a couple of low level webcams in Mountain Spirit (Backcountry Snowsports Shop) located towards the South end of Aviemore on Grampian Road.

This is a fairly temporary set up at present to assess the value of low level cameras to compliment the on mountain cameras. One camera is providing a widescreen format panorama of the distant Cairngorms and we hope will be useful for assessing snow level and cloud base / visibility.

A second camera provides a low level view of the Southern end of Grampian Road in Aviemore. Situated at 690feet, this will be useful for gauging lower level snow falls and thus road conditions in spells of wintry weather as well as seeing what the weathers doing all the time. Unlike the other cameras this camera updates all night and the road provides an excellent indication of whether it’s dry or wet!

Please remember we’re just testing this out, we’re unsure of how useful these cameras will be a distance from the mountain, but the Aviemore view in itself should be useful.

Unfortunately due to deteriorating weather conditions it was decided to abort an attempt to get the third camera working at the Ski Club Hut. With the Funicular closed due to wind, deteriorating overhead and expected ice underfoot it wasn’t looking like a good move to carry computer gear (including my laptop!) up the Home Road.