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

The wind was still blowing rather robustly on Saturday morning, but a slight rise in freezing level dampened down lower level drifting allowing a fairly swift opening to the A93 Cairnwell Pass. Meanwhile CairnGorm opened from the Ciste, with road opened to the Ciste Carpark around 8.30am and shuttle buses utilizing a narrow cut on the down road to get up to Coire Cas.

This evening all East Coast access roads are open and with a further slight rise in temperature do not expect there to be any issues on Sunday morning with the roads. However snow will continue to drift at higher level overnight, so there may still be some delays to opening further up the mountain on CairnGorm, where Storm Force winds blowing off the Plateau kept uplift limited to the Cas and Carpark Tows on the main slopes. The Link Road was opened to the public late afternoon, so parking in Coire Cas is expected to be available in the morning.

At this stage, the advise is to not travel to CairnGorm unless you already have a ticket for Sunday or season pass, unless you are prepared to gamble on not getting a ticket. Unless more uplift can open, there will be no walk up tickets available and that will need to be reviewed in the morning. Also go on the assumption the funicular will not operate, at least until later in the day, priority in the storm recovery work will be in opening as much surface uplift as wind allows to give access to the most terrain / uplift capacity.

On the subject of wind, it has begun to ease as we go into the evening and is forecast to moderate further overnight, but SE winds are rather notoriously unpredictable on CairnGorm in lighter airflow, as katabatic wind acceleration off the Plateau can kick in.

At Glenshee wind prevented the Cairnwell Chair from running, but that looks more promising for Sunday and will provide access to the Thunderbowl, plus the Cairnwell RaceTracks without using the T-bar! Tom Dearg opened up again on Saturday giving access to the back of Sunnyside and storm recovery work continues in the middle valley.

Glencoe is open to the top with 1400ft of lifted vertical back to the foot of the Plateau Poma. The Rannoch Button made its season debut on Saturday, so a welcome boost to uplift capacity on the upper mountain, while the Rannoch Chair also came on for the afternoon, though not many people noticed given the visibility! For Sunday all uplift bar the Wall T-bar should run, but that does mean the Cliffhanger will be a bit of a pinch point, so may well be better to stay on the upper mountain or Plateau for several runs than regular full laps.

At the Lecht all the main runs have good cover with wider cover building on the Buzzard side. For novices all 3 Eastern areas have great conditions, Glenshee probably edges it for progression terrain with the Baddoch Chair and Claybokie Poma at present.

Higher terrain should have fresh / windblown snow in the morning, but lower slopes should have consolidated a bit with softer machine packed snow. Heavily skied areas outwith the fences should be similar, but less trafficked areas may be a bit sticky in the morning with the slightly milder temperatures this evening.

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.

:: 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, 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 weekend days with snowsports underway and due to numbers already on the hill, the Access Chair was closed to uphill passengers early at 3pm on Saturday.

• top of page •

:: England Club Fields

Weardale was able to operate on Wednesday and Friday. At Raise the wind direction unfortunately scoured the Poma slope!

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/ .

• top of page •

:: Mountain Weather

At 6pm in the West at the Glencoe SSC hut (850m) the temperature was -0.2°c, wind at 16 gusting 27mph. At the Top of the Access (671m) it was also +1.5°c. At Base level (366m) it was +3.8°c.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -1.5°c. The Met Office station was reporting a South wind at 17 gusting 39mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was +1.4°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +5.3°c.

In the East the Met Office Summit AWS on CairnGorm reported -1.6°c, with aSouth Easterly at a mean of 50 gusting 68mph. At Aviemore the temperature at 6pm was +3.9°c.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS (3061ft /934m) has not reported since 3pm when it recorded a temperature of +0.3°c, with a South Easterly at a mean of 38 gusting 65mph.

• top of page •

:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

Well forecast suggestions on Friday that near the West Coast had the best shot at some brighter interludes on Saturday certainly went out the window at Glencoe, it was a full on thick pea soup all day. Unexpectedly the place that did catch some rays was the Eastern side of Glenshee, despite the SE wind!

Freezing Level is going to be around to just slightly below Munro Level over the next couple of days before lowering again on Tuesday. Wind speeds are expected to lull considerably overnight from the West and we should see speeds lower on CairnGorm by or soon after opening time. Generally overcast with flurries to light snow around, this may be sleety on lower slopes at times. Expecting 0 to -1°c at Munro Level. Wind widely 15 gusting 25mph from mid morning, but likely still 20 gusting 40mph on and downslope of the Cairngorm Plateau as the SE flow continues.

Over the coming days a similar pattern to pre Storm Chandra looks likely to persist, FL bouncing around between slightly below and slightly above the lower slopes, wind generally from the SE quadrant and speeds fluctuating. More organised snow looks set to push into the SE Highlands later Monday, with the freezing level lowering to then slightly below the lower slopes Monday afternoon into the evening. Another 10 to 20cm of snow is possible in the SE Cairngorms.

SE winds are also expected to freshen again on / during Monday and gusts to between 55 and 70mph are looking possible on the Cairngorm Plateau and northern downslopes. Whiteout conditions are expected at height. More generally 25 to 30 gusting 45mph around Munro Level. Zero to -1°c lowering -3°c by late afternoon Monday.

• top of page •

:: Webcams and Weather Stations

Lowther Hill: Leadhills webcam is online (24/7). A power cut affected the camera, it is back online, but some fogging of the lens is apparent on top of bouts of actual fog. This should clearup soon with the camera powered up.

GLENCOE: All mountain webcams online and the first updated images are from the Top of the Access Chair shortly after 7am, other cams come on by 7.45am. The mid mountain weather station wind direction is not working, other data valid.

• top of page •