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

The East has the most established snow, but it is the West which has seen the most new snow in the past few days and that means Glencoe is set to open to the top on day 2 of the West Coast lift served season on Saturday offering up the full on mountain vertical of 1400ft back to the base of the Plateau lifts.

Some big news in the East too for the weekend, with the West Wall Poma opening up on Friday afternoon, serving the M2 and Overyonder, giving a longer blue run and with the Daylodge Poma also running, a fast route to lap the full Cas side vertical for advanced skiers and expert boarders via the combination of the DLP and WWP, which should take some pressure of the M1 Poma, while the funicular provides the option to ride most of the available vertical without using the surface lifts.

CairnGorm is able to offer top to Daylodge riding giving 1720ft of vertical on the Cas side. With both the DLP and WWP now open, ski tourer tickets are available from the ticket office, for 2 surface uplifts.

After the big storm cycle at the weekend, the White Lady (red) and Cas Gunbarrel (blue) have a decent base and width, but the upper Cas (as is often the case in wind with an Easterly vector) is narrow, the uptrack and run still separate single groomer width strips in parts. The lower slopes have some thin and narrow areas, but are easily passable. Only OverYonder is currently open to the WWP.

Glenshee are set to make it into the middle valley for the first time on Saturday, with the Tom Dearg Poma scheduled to open during the day. The Butcharts Access Poma is also anticipated to reopen serving Butchart?s Coire itself and it is hoped to also open the Cairnwell Chair, which will give non surface uplift to the Race Tracks giving a longer red and blue runs at Glenshee. Machines have been working on the Bunny Run also. Nursery areas and the short progression run from the Plastic Slope Poma are in great shape thanks to earlier snow making. Glenshee is likely to have the most cloud this weekend, but is also most likely to catch further gradual top ups of new snow.

The Lecht has nearly all main runs complete and they are full width between the fences with machine groomed snow. A couple of thinner / narrower bits on links to/from the Eagle area, but generally held up very well in the wild/wet part of the storm cycle Sunday evening! The nursery slopes by the magic carpets have good cover thanks to the snow making.

Glencoe kicked off the West Coast season on Friday with the Coire Pollach Tow serving Old Mugs Alley. For Saturday the full on mountain vertical of 1400ft will be on offer with uplift to the summit. The main action will be for more advanced skiers and boarders on the upper mountain on the Main Basin and Happy Valley, and early intermediates / those advancing from the nursery slopes on Old Mugs Alley from the Coire Pollach Tow. Either the Rannoch Chair or Plateau Poma will operate for access to the Coire Pollach Tow and Cliffhanger Chair (which will be assessed AM). It is possible to ski back to the Top of the Access Chair, but the bottom third of the Plateau Runs are very thin / narrow (basically below the level of the Coire Pollach Tow).

If heading to Glencoe for sledging 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, last chair up at 3.45pm and last chair down at 4pm. Sledgers keep in mind, the Access Chair will be busier at the end of the day with snowsports underway, so an earlier visit is advisable and the Plateau Cafe will be extremely busy at lunch!

All facilities at Nevis Range have been closed since Monday 5th January, including the base area. There is no lift assisted access to Aonach Mor for tourers or winter climbers at this time.

:: Weekend Preview and Lift Ticket Info

After recent media coverage of the heavy low level snow in various areas at the start of the year, demand for lift passes last weekend significantly outstripped the available uplift / terrain. Despite a dramatic thaw/freeze cycle last Sunday / Monday, there is more terrain and uplift available this weekend, increasing the number of tickets available.

It is almost a full house on CairnGorm and as noted above more tickets were released on Friday evening. Shuttle bus will operate from Coire na Ciste from 9am until carparks clear, both carparks are likely to be very busy, so if possible car share, or consider parking in Aviemore and using the local bus service.

The Lecht have released tickets for the next four days, for both there and Glenshee advisable to pre-book or you could miss out. Lecht only had 50 tickets remaining for Saturday at update.

Glencoe has released 500 snowsports tickets for the weekend, with terrain only suitable for lower abilities and more advanced riders, these probably will not sell out. However there maybe some displaced demand if any of the Eastern areas reach capacity!

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:: England Club Fields

The 3 Pennine Club Fields were able to open last Saturday, with a thin cover of new snow lying on frozen ground.

Weardale managed to open Sunday morning, with a decent covering of new snow overnight, but closed at lunchtime in rapidly deteriorating wet and windy weather. Weardale will not open again until colder temperatures and new snow return. Allenheads did not open as it was raining at the village elevation by 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 at 850m the mid mountain temperature was -0.7°c, wind at 8 gusting 16mph. At the Top of the Access (671m) it was +0.1°c. At Base level (366m) it was +1.9°c.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -2.3°c. The Met Office station was reporting a South wind at 27 gusting 40mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was +0.5°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +4°c.

In the East the CairnGorm Met Office Summit AWS reported -3.0°c with a Southerly at a 25 gusting 38mph. At Aviemore the temperature at 6pm was +3.2°c.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS (3061ft /934m) reported -2°c with a SSE wind at a mean of 13 gusting 18mph.

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:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

Things are settling down into a fairly benign picture for Highland Scotland into the weekend, with pressure rising to give a cool but not particularly cold (at this stage) SE airflow.

At dusk on Friday light snow was falling at Glencoe and clusters of showers that will give mountain snow were moving up the West Coast and look as if there could be a couple of cm new snow for some West Coast mountains this evening. Flurries were also falling around Glenshee with some smaller lighter shower cells in the vicinity.
Over the weekend further North and West are likely to see more in the way of brightness, while the Southern Cairngorms will see the most cloud, but also some slight further accumulations of snow in the coming days.

With a SE flow, wind speeds will freshen at times on and downslope of the Cairngorm Plateau, but this does not look like causing any uplift issues at the weekend and should have net positive in keeping moving some more loose snow into the ski area, so exploring could well get some fresh tracks each morning! It does however mean, cloud caps may spill over from further south in the range at times.

Daytime freezing level is expected to be around the lower slopes with generally between -1 to -2°c at Munro Level on Saturday, perhaps a degree higher on Sunday.

There is a risk of stronger SE winds developing during Monday or through the evening into Tuesday, as a low pressure stalls SW of Ireland against a developing high pressure over Scandinavia as Northern Blocking takes hold. Temporarily milder air likely to spill under the high lifting the FL to around or just above higher Munros for a day or two, before potentially notably colder air approaches from the East. At this stage the trend initially at least is for pressure to be fairly high around / over Northern Scotland so precipitation totals likely to be low generally, but a gradual accumulation from light snowfall on terrain exposed to the onshore East or SE wind.

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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 will be shortly after 8am. The mid mountain weather station wind direction is not working, other data valid.

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