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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 .

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.

The last of the snow clouds cleared to leave a perfect but fading blue sky above CairnGorm Mountain at dusk. Flat calm, still and frosty, and the forecasts promise Saturday will dawn just as Friday ended.

A couple of photos for now, a full report and more photos in Pix from the Slopes later.

Looking up Coire Na Ciste and over under the Chair to the Aonach Bowl and Aonach Ridge beyond. Skiable to the Ciste Carpark.

The webcams in the SSC hut are updating at five minute intervals to try and improve reliability while it’s relying on very limited bandwidth. They have been set to start updates before 7am, so you can see how it’s shaping up from as soon as there is enough light.

Unexpected heavy snow showers on Thursday afternoon saw the Glenmore Gates get closed for the remainder of the afternoon as the road became increasingly icy, rather than from amount of snow. The showers did however put down another 2 or 3 inches higher up.

It had been hoped to visit the Webcam Installation in the Ski Club Hut to check up on it and try to clear the windows. There is an ongoing data communication issue since the storm, due to a data service problem with the local mast after Wednesdays Storm.

Taking a short walk along the shore  of Loch Morlich around dusk alone apart from a few ducks, the mist suddenly cleared revealing a pinkish sunset amongst the snow clouds, and brief glimpse of Coire Cas (See Pix from the Slopes).

Friday promises more settled weather ahead of a great Saturday, but stormy Sunday. An attempt to de-ice the window of the SSC hut will be made, but if it’s not possible a few sunny spells should help as it’s facing South.

At the moment the mist started to clear in Coire Cas, I was very impressed with the width of cover on the Cas… only as the mist cleared slightly further I realised it wasn’t the Coire Cas Tow, but the Carpark Tow I had been looking at. The lower mountain is absolutely loaded.

He who issues an rm * command in unix without first double checking which directory he is in can expect a long night….. sigh!

It’s a cracker of a day in the Central Highlands, blue sky, still and frosty. Not a true white Christmas but a definite festive tinge from the frost. Hope Santa was good to you, maybe we should ask him for some snow making next year?

Have a great day and don’t over indulge (too much!)