General Situation // Scottish Ski & Winter Activity Report // Winterhighland

Overnight snowfall gave way to snow showers on Sunday, these heavier and more frequent in the South and West with a SW airflow after overnight SE Gales blew themselves out.

Glenshee and Glencoe look to have caught the most snowfall with around 12 to 14cm at Glenshee and 18 to 22cm at Glencoe from Saturday dusk through to close of play on Sunday. Nevis Range falls somewhere between these two, but the Goose had over a foot of windblown fresh thanks to the strong SE winds overnight.

The Northern Cairngorms saw the least falling snow with around 6 to 8cm indicated by radar data, however the SE wind coming off the Plateau reached Violent Storm Force 11 overnight for a number of hours, shifting substantial amounts of loose snow from Southern aspects and higher plateau areas into the Northern Corries, including the ski area (and the ski road)! Despite this the ski road was open in time for some more sheltered tows to open on time as the worst of the wind drifting did abate through the dawn period. By afternoon everything but the Fiacaill Ridge Poma was running on CairnGorm and machines are continuing to work to build an uptrack for it.

The CairnGorm Funicular is offering 1550ft of non-surface uplift vertical with a mix of green, blue and red terrain accessible from the train. The White Lady, East Lady and M1 RaceTrack are in great shape with spring snow for more experienced riders, and the M2/Daylodge run is a great option from the train for blue terrain skiers / riders.

Snow showers continuing tonight, most frequent in the West, so more fresh expected for Glencoe tonight, possibly another 5cm plus.

Recently, Glencoe has been more suited to more confident intermediates and above, as by far the best riding has been on the upper mountain. However the Plateau area and Mugs Alley from the Cliffhanger is much improved with the new snow. While the Plateau Poma run is still thin at the bottom, the Low Road has been pisted out to several machine widths on the wrong side of the fence, and is complete into the Rannoch Chair loading area. So this should be a great pick for early intermediates over the next few days. For more advanced riders, the top of the mountain at Glencoe is a whole bunch of fun with opportunities to ride stuff that is usually just boulder-fields, as thanks to the persistent SE winds the mountain feels almost back to front! See Sunday photos for full report.

To get the most out of Glenshee you really need to be comfortable with the Pomas, but there should be a decent amount to get at on the Cairnwell side from the Cairnwell Chairlift including the Tiger (black), Thunder Bowl (red), Cairnwell RaceTracks (red + blue) and part of the Bunny Run out into Butcharts Coire. The chair may not run first thing due to wind, but speeds are due to drop away quite quickly.

The big news from Glenshee is that the Caenlochan Poma run for a period this evening under test with no further problems so it looks like the faults caused in part by the sheer amount of snow around it have been cured successfully. This will open up the whole face of Meall Odhar including a loop round to Tom Dearg via the Home Run for a lengthy blue. Very often Meall Odhar is an overlooked part of Glenshee, used simply as an access corridor to Coire Fionn, however given the persistent SE wind, there is masses of snow and wind features adding to the naturally varied terrain and the whole Western face of Meall Odhar is going to be one big playground! In many ways this is Glenshees best natural terrain.

At the Lecht the main runs are complete and full width between the fences, there are still some icy patches on the steeper face of the Grouse. The Buzzard side has an extensive wide cover and the nursery slopes by the magic carpets have a great base and are in excellent condition thanks to a refresh from the fan guns overnight.

Nevis Range plan to open the Alpha Button and the Goose T-bar, work to locate the Summit Button haul rope continues! The Home Run / Rabbit Run provide a return from the Goose to outside the Top Station. Note, there is NO equipment hire available at Nevis Range and no downhill ski or snowboard hire available in Fort William. Nevis Range will only have the Gondola running Wednesday and Thursday this week.

:: Glencoe Sledge Park

The Sledge Park at the Plateau Cafe is in excellent condition! It is advisable to arrive before 2pm at the latest for sledging to get a decent amount of time on the hill. First chair up at 9am, the sledge park is always quietest before 11.30am. Last chair down scheduled for 4pm.

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:: England Club Fields

All 3 of the Pennine Club Fields were open on Saturday with a fine day under the ridge of high pressure and conditions helped by a sharp overnight frost firming up/drying out what had been wet ground under the fresh snow. With more drifting thanks to the wind direction, Yad Moss had the best cover going by the photos, but Yad Moss will not run Sunday due to the forecast.

Both Allenheads and Weardale will aim to give it a go on Sunday, but a final decision will be taken in the morning. Allenheads in particularly may only get the morning as milder temperatures are expected by lunchtime. Possibly cooler with further snow early next week. Snow tyres of chains likely to be required to reach Weardale Sun AM.

Over at Raise, the Lake District Ski Club will did not have sufficient snow to operate on Saturday. Given snow is expected in the West overnight, they may attempt to run the Raise Poma on Sunday subject to the snow and weather situation in the morning.

For both Weardale and Allenheads, you need to join the club with a season pass, these are still available for both at this time.

Please check club access rules / availability if not a club member / pass holder.

Weardale: https: //skiweardale.com/ .
Allenheads: http://ski-allenheads.co.uk/ .
Yad Moss: https: //yadmoss.co.uk/ .
Raise: https: //www.ldscsnowski.co.uk/ .

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:: Mountain Weather

At 6pm in the West at the Glencoe SSC hut (850m) the temperature was -0.3°c, wind at 10 gusting 19mph. At the Top of the Access (671m) it was -0.4°c. At Base level (366m) it was +0.1°c with a flat calm.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -1.6°c. The Met Office station was reporting a South Westerly at 11 gusting 16mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was +0.7°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +1.5°c.

In the East the Met Office Summit AWS on CairnGorm reported -3.0°c, while the Heriot Watt Summit Weather Station reported a North Westerly at a mean of 13 gusting 17mph. At Aviemore the temperature at 6pm was +0.8°c.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS reported -1.5°c with a NW wind at a mean of 9 gusting 14mph.

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:: Peak Half Term - Limited on mountain hire availability left

We are now in the peak of February Half Term proper, subject to weather, the busiest days are likely to be up to and including Wednesday, as the main week of English Half Term coincides with a number of local long weekends.

On-Mountain equipment hire is at or near capacity for several days already, do not expect to hire at the mountain when you arrive without an equipment reservation.

Please note that Nevis Range has no operational equipment hire. Glencoe hire opens at 8.30am and allows multi day hires for off site use, this is the only downhill ski and snowboard rental option currently available close to Nevis Range.

As always at half term, the best way to minimise hire queuing is if you have your own equipment, bring it! Safely fitting equipment takes time even with pre-booking.

If you still need equipment hire and are unable to secure an advance booking at the mountain, there are options for hiring on route. If you are travelling from or through Glasgow, try Ski n Board Room. For Glenshee try the Cabin Ski Hire at Bridge of Cally. There are several options in and around Aviemore for CairnGorm, including the Pine Marten Bar on the ski road at Glenmore, immediately after Loch Morlich.

Carparks at Glenshee and CairnGorm are likely to reach capacity on peak days, on CairnGorm shuttle buses will operate from Coire na Ciste from around 9am. Please remember that there are currently no facilities at the Ciste Carpark and there may be a wait for the shuttle bus at peak times.

With considerably more snow in the East in the build up to Half Term, Glencoe is unlikely to have carpark issues over the next few days, but to keep things organised, larger 4wd vehicles please park in the top carpark above the Ticket Office. Only cars and small vans in the main carpark area. Campervans wishing to stay overnight will find the most level areas around the edge of the overflow carpark.

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:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

Heavy frontal snow set into the West late Saturday evening and all areas received new snow overnight, with a period of several hours of Storm Force winds on the higher tops. Fortunately the wind dropped off markedly by dawn in the West and continued to moderate through the morning in the East.

This evening further bands of snow showers will come into the West, these will be quite slow moving with the much lighter winds, so it is possible Nevis and Glencoe could pick up another 2 to 3 inches overnight.

Monday will be a day of bright or sunny spells and further snow showers, though all areas will see some showers on Monday, there will be more of them and bit more to them near the West Coast with the NW breeze, of the breeze turns a bit more NNW, then shower activity could perk up for the Northern Cairngorms if the wind starts blowing in directly off the Moray Firth. A bit colder than Sunday afternoon, with Munro Level temperatures expected to be around -3 to -4°c at Munro Level early Monday afternoon. Moderate NW wind, around 15 to 20mph with gusts to 25 to 30mph. Maybe some gustier spells AM around any heftier shower cells. FL at or below the lower slopes of the ski areas.

Towards or post dusk a rapid strengthening in wind speed, increasing for a time to 40 with gusts over 60mph in the West, and a risk of 50 to 60 with gusts to 70 to 80mph in the Northern Cairngorms. There is some uncertainty about peak wind speeds, but with the temperature dropping another degree or so, snow will drift to lower levels on the strong NW to North wind. The different direction to recently will result in some significant redistribution of loose snow. The good news is the wind should have fallen away in the West by opening time on Tuesday as a ridge of high pressure builds in, it will still be blustery in the East for a bit longer, but the worst of the wind will be in the early hours.

The weak ridge of high pressure will settle things down from the West for Tuesday and looks to keep things mostly fine through to Thursday, though Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to have the brightest overhead.

Light to moderate NW wind in the West where current indications favour nearly unbroken sunshine on Tuesday. Some light snow showers into the Northern Cairngorms on the NW wind over the top of the ridge. Temperature lowering to between -4 and -6°c at Munro Level.

The previous uncertainty for midweek looks to be resolving in favour of the ridge of high pressure being in situ Wednesday and Thursday. Both now look like cold days, freezing at most levels inland, though now looking like a degree or so less cold than on Tuesday. Wind will turn SE then South, so best of the sunshine towards the North of the main ranges, tending to become hazier and partly cloudy from the South later Wednesday. Possible light snow into the Southern Cairngorms if wind there is slightly East of due South.

Thursday looks to be dry with partly cloudy skies with a light to moderate Southerly. However, by Thursday the GFS ensembles have a 11°c spread in the 850hpa temperature for the Central Highlands and the ECMWF and its AI version (AIFS) are not much more confident with a spread of 9°c. These indicate that there is still quite a bit of uncertainty, but the balance of model output favours a decent Thursday at this time.

However by the end of the week things look on balance to be turning unsettled and potentially stormy from the Atlantic, with a trend towards quite rapid and fairly dramatic thaw / freeze cycling.

The days leading up to the 60th Anniversary of Glencoe saw fairly heavy low level snow, several reasonable and cold days with not much wind, only to be replaced by wind and rain by the evening of the 20th with a slushy mess around the Glencoe carpark. Are we about to see a repeat for the 70th Anniversary on Friday?

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:: Webcams and Weather Stations

Lowther Hill: Leadhills webcam is online (24/7).

GLENCOE: All mountain webcams online and the first updated images are from the Top of the Access Chair are around 7am, other cams come on by 7.30am. Sledge Park camera streams overnight. The mid mountain weather station wind direction is not working, other data valid.

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