•Glencoe Snow Sledge Park

•England Club Fields

•Mountain Weather

•Mountain Forecast Discussion

•Webcams and Weather Stations

Largely cloudless skies continue on Friday, but gradually the resident high pressure will slip away, heralding cooler and less settled weather next week.

Get an early weather check - our webcams will be updating from around 5.50am.

It has been a spectacular first third of April, weather that would not be out of place in high summer. Had we had the base, this would have been some pretty all time spring snowsports, alas the only lift served snow action is sledging or beginner ski / snowboard lessons at Glencoe! The sledge park is open daily and in fantastic condition.

The Plateau Cafe remains open daily along with the adjacent sledge park, and will remain open through the early May bank holiday. If you are thinking of a sledging visit, the best of the overhead will be on Friday, but it will be quite blustery, Saturday will be a bit cooler with broken cloud cover gradually increasing, Sunday will be noticeably cooler with a chance of a snow flurry.

Nevis Range kicked off their lift served mountain biking season last Thursday and bike uplift is currently available Thu-Sun at present. Note the Glencoe Downhill tracks are not yet open with an estimated opening of early May.

Now we are moving into the middle third of April, if there is to be any further lift served snowsports this season it more likely than not will be on CairnGorm or the Lecht.

Both CairnGorm and the Lecht can come back from nothing in April, indeed even into May, should an unstable cold northerly flow become established. The strengthening spring sun helping drive convection over the Moray Firth bringing big shower cells into the Northern Cairngorms. See April / May 2012 for a classic example of this! However it is rare for such setups to bring significant snow to the Southern side of the Cairngorms.

It would require something truly exceptional for the time of year to open the upper mountain at Glencoe, that said of the recent individual forecast model runs indicating the most mountain snow, they currently favour the West mid month. It is not inconceivable that the Plateau area at Glencoe could reopen. The Poma has reopened late April and early May previously, but not from a no snow situation below mid-station level, after weeks of warm weather!

:: Glencoe Snow Sledge Park

The Access Chair is open daily from 9am. The sledge park is full length and snow making is in progress with a view to the sledge park remaining open through the early May Bank Holiday weekend.

Sledging is complimentary with a chairlift ticket. The Plateau Cafe on the mountain is open daily (weather permitting) from 10am until 3pm. If going sledging it is recommended to arrive by 2.45pm at the latest to get a reasonable length of time on the mountain, as the last chair down is 4.30pm.

:: England Club Fields

All the club fields are awaiting the return of snow.

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/ .

:: Mountain Weather

At 8pm in the West at the Glencoe SSC hut at 850m the mid mountain temperature was +7.9°c, with a WSW wind at 17 gusting 36 mph.

The SAIS AWS at the top of the Summit Tow was reporting +5.8°c on Aonach Mor. The Tower 17 AWS on the Gondola was reporting a WSW wind at 22 gusting 30 mph. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +12.8°c.

In the East the CairnGorm the Met Office Summit AWS reported +7.9°c with a West wind at 43 gusting 51mph. Aviemore was at +13.9°c.

The Cairnwell AWS reported +9.1°c (3061ft /934m), with a West wind at a mean of 30 gusting 54 mph.

:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

High pressure has completely controlled the weather through the first third of April, parts of Highland Scotland recording the maximum possible sunshine amounts for the month to date!

While largely cloudless skies will hold for most on Friday, the high will be relinquishing its grip, so it will be fairly blustery on Friday. A couple of degrees cooler on Friday, after Thursday setting the warmest day of the year so far in Scotland, it will be around 8°c at Munro Level in the West, 10 to 11°c in the East. Winds around 20 gusting 30 to 40mph on the mountains.


Wind speeds are expected to actually moderate slightly for Saturday, but it will be cooler with cloud amounts gradually building after a fairly bright start. However for the Central Highlands it should stay dry, only the NW Highlands likely to catch showers on Saturday. Around +7°c at Munro Level in the West, towards +8 in the East or maybe +9°c in the NE Cairngorms.


A marked drop in temperature is expected for Sunday, a mix of brighter spells and wintry showers falling as snow on the Munros with a moderate Westerly wind. FL around the higher tops, with +2°c at Munro Level, but trending towards freezing late in the day.

Early indications for Monday show strong Southerly winds, gusting 40 to 50mph quite widely on higher tops and exposed ridges, temperature down further, with the FL around or just below Munro Level. Between -1 to +1°c at 900m. Possibly staying dry in the East Highlands, but overcast towards the South, snow showers for the West Highlands, merging together at times.

:: Webcams and Weather Stations

Lowther Hill: Leadhills webcam online.

GLENCOE: Most mountain webcams online and the first updated images will be from around 5.50am BST. Mid mountain AWS online. Dryslope webcam and base AWS out of action for a period due to overhaul of the tubing slope.

Summit network connection is down, no current webcam updates from the top at Glencoe.