CairnGorm Mountain kicked of the 2009/10 Scottish Snowsports Season on Saturday with great early season conditions in the Top Basin for warming up those ski legs with the first turns of winter.

All Top Basin Runs are complete and opened on Saturday with the Ptarmigan Tow available from the start and the Coire Na Ciste Tow opening up about lunchtime. The Ciste Fairway is loaded, really good cover and full width between the fences and was the pick of the day on Saturday.

Alas at time of writing the weather in a combination of wind, low cloud and snow shower has prevented the top tows running on Sunday due to appalling visibility. However it’s helping fill the runs in more and more snow is forecast for the coming days.

The upper 2/3rds of the middle slopes on CairnGorm are filling in quite nicely, but the snow level was a couple of hundred feet too high last week. However I managed to post the first full length descent of the M1 on Saturday on a visit to the Timing Hut, a bit of precision rock slalom required right at the top, then a pleasant full width stretch of wind packed snow before the surface turned into ego sapping breakable crust. Some classic Scottish Combat Skiing down the final fenced narrow into the queuing area took me to the foot of the M1 Poma (I haven’t yet looked at the bottom of the skis…). However for those who stick to the prepared area up top, no need to worry about rocks or bringing the old planks.

There is a pisted track from the upper Zig Zags up the 105 and Traverse to the top which provides a easy way up for those touring. You can ski back down this way, but it’s not patrolled and you’ll need to walkout to the Daylodge until there is enough snow to formally open the middle mountain.

The Sortie back down the mountain included a check on the weather stations and webcams and all were functioning correctly with no icing problems on the anemometers. If wind speed at one AWS is consistently 0mph with changing wind direction, and temps have recently fallen below 0c with either wet snow/sleet for a time or thick mist, be suspicious that icing may be an issue. In such conditions take all the AWS’s together and consider what’s happening on the short webcam video clips such as for the SSC balcony to get an idea of whether the calm conditions being reported by the wind vane is factual or not!

It was fantastic to be back on the planks again and the pisted snow was just perfect for making those first turns on, at present Wednesday is looking like the day for a mid-week slide, mostly sunny and winds going Southerly which shouldn’t affect the tows, but provides a great tail wind to spice up the Top Basin. Here’s to a hopefully snowy 2010.

A blustery and snowy Autumn day at Glencoe on Friday, which wasn’t the best for lugging computer equipment to 2800ft on a Scottish Mountain. www.winterhighland.info/cams/glencoe .

Snow starting to lie to the top of the Access.

Thanks to  the Scottish Ski Club (for their support and hosting the kit ),  the staff at Glencoe for their assistance today and to those who have generously contributed to the Winterhighland cause this autumn, we now have two new Winterhighland Webcams up and running at the Glencoe Scottish Ski Club Hut on Meall a’ Bhuiridh.

For now this is a very temporary installation that will be made more permanent in due course. With snow on the ground and more forecast the mission was to get some webcams to let people see the weather and snow asap. So with the wind forecast markedly improving for Friday with Thursday’s updated forecasts, after a couple of phone calls, a computer system was hurriedly set up  and a Vodafone usb dongle bought shortly before 7pm, once some frantic googling appeared to confirm ways existed to get it to fire up under Xubuntu linux on a ancient P3 with 256mb of RAM!

Here comes the computer on it's way up the Cliffhanger Chairlift on Friday afternoon.

The equipment and that necessary to set-up the gear up and get it on-line were carried up on the Access and Cliffhanger Chair, and lugged over the Plateau. The views currently on offer are dictated by proximity to power and the need to keep the cameras close to the computer, a new power supply and usb extender cables will be used when the system is permanently installed, this will provide an improved view up to the Top Tows, plus allow a camera to be higher up looking down over the Canyon to the Wall. There is also the  possibility of sitting the cameras at the other side of the hut, looking down the Cliffy line and over the upper part of Mugs Alley (or indeed an additional camera for this), so let us know what view you’d prefer and this will guide the final placement.

Webcam looking out the gable end of the SSC Hut.

Currently at Loch Morlich Water Sports to complete the re-installation of the AWS and level the webcam, so fortunately we can see not the mountains this lunchtime!

The thermometer and hydrometer are now housed in a radiation screen which should solve the issue of sudden and unrealistic spikes in temperature when the sun comes out at certain times of day.

The webcam has been levelled (easier when there is something to see!) and is now also uploading a short video clip every 15minutes. This clip will be useful for gauging the conditions on the Loch as well as over the mountain tops, where scudding clouds give a clear indication of very high wind speeds.

If you find the existing Winterhighland webcams useful and can afford to do so, perhaps  you would like to consider a donation or voluntary  subscription to help secure continued expansion  and operation of Winterhighland’s  webcam and weather station network?

www.winterhighland.info/support

Brrr, canoeists brave a chilly autumn morning on Loch Morlich.

A chilly, damp and misty Wednesday morning was spent reinstalling the Automatic Weather Station at Loch Morlich Water Sports which was off-line due to renovations on the outside of the Boathouse during late October. The anemometer and rain gauge have been mounted above the roof-line to improve exposure.

The temperature sensor is currently un-screened and will read several degrees too high mid-morning in sunny weather , this will be rectified asap (awaiting parts for the radiation screen).

Where? The visibility worsened while installing the webcam!

This will be the first full winter for this AWS being on-line and it will be fascinating to see how night time temperatures differ from both the mountain and Aviemore in the sheltered location of Glenmore which is surrounded by higher ground on all sides with only a couple of relatively narrow openings - helping to pool cold air.

Also installed was the new Loch Morlich Web Cam which provides a view of CairnGorm Mountain from the Boathouse. Looking over the Beach and Eastern end of the Loch this cam gives a wide view over the Windy Ridge, Coire Cas, Coire an t-Sneachda and Coire an Lochain.

This webcam is infra red sensitive which means it is able to pick up the very first hint of light as dawn approaches and as such will start updating 1 hour before sunrise so will prove useful in the depths of winter when the days are shortest for getting an earlier sneak preview of what the weather’s doing / done overnight. The camera can’t ’see’ in the dark, thus does need a bit of light, so on particularly gloomy overcast mornings it may take a little bit longer for scenery to become visible.

Loch Morlich AWS and Webcam.

Our Loch Morlich webcam updates every minute, so will be great for storm watching as the clouds and hopefully snow roll in over the mountains.

There is one unintended consequence of the cam’s IR sensitivity, in certain lighting conditions the Scots Pines appear purple!

The webcam and current weather can be viewed on the Loch Morlich Cam page at www.winterhighland.info/cams/cairngorm-mountain/morlich.php . As well as current weather, 5 minute reports for the last hour & hourly for the past 24 hours are provided in tabular format along with graphs showing air temperature and the 5 minute mean and gust wind speed over the past 48 hours.

Live Cam Image:

After a very mild week for mid October with temps into the mid-teens even on the mountain, a change of wind direction to the North  overnight meant a decidedly chillier feel to the air today, even when in fact the temperature was around 5c -hardly Baltic by ‘Gorm standards!

Use the Force Alan... Installing an external 2.4Ghz antenna for the SSC Hut router.

So today’s instalment of pre season training differed from the usual coffee and cakes in the Ptarmigan in favour of the somewhat more strenuous task of lugging 2 sizeable rucksacks and one holdall of equipment, computer stuff, weather station, tools, drill, 2.4m of stud timber and a 7ft mast to the Sheiling Trainer Tow, oh and a foot long phallic symbol dressed up as an omni-direction 2.4ghz antenna for the WiFi router in the SSC Hut!

Today’s work was part of the effort building from the Cherished Uplift Fund to improve the understanding of climate/weather conditions on the ‘Gorm to help provide a base level to study potential routes for optimising snowsports provision under different climate scenarios. The first stage is to get more real-time weather data from different elevations on the mountain and the Sheiling Tow is the first of 2, possibly 3 new Automatic Weather Stations that it is planned to install for the coming season.

The second new station is a high end Peet Bros Ultimeter 2100 destined for the M1 Timing Hut at 2800ft, just below the cut off via Horizon Road to the 105 from the M1 RaceTrack. Work is currently in-hand to restore power to the timing hut, an effort which will not just allow the new weather station but greatly increase the flexibility for race operations on the M1 again (an effort to which £250 has been contributed to the cost of re-installing power from the Cherished Uplift Fund).

It is hoped to provide a third new station at the Camera Obscura, this will be at exactly the same elevation and a very short distance from the manual Met Office recording station, which will provide a check against the automatic stations. Also as the manual record goes back to the 70s at this elevation, after 2-3 years of data collection on the AWS with numerous readings an hour stored, it will be possible to analysis how this data relates to the manual station, and go back and reanalysis the manual data.

Sheiling Tow AWS installed

Combined with the existing SSC Hut aws at 2500ft and the Loch Morlich AWS at 1050ft, this will give a record of weather at 1050ft, 2150ft, 2300ft, 2500ft and 2800ft. The short vertical spacing on the lower half of the ski area will provide valuable information on the elevation and behaviour of temperature inversions on the mountain - a phenomenon that could have significant impact (positive and negative at times) on the potential for snow making in settled conditions in which wind would not be an issue.

There is a suspected firmware issue with the SSC router preventing functional WiFi - a further visit over the weekend to attempt to flash the router and reinstall the firmware is planned, plus to finish up a few odds and ends that need completed. All being well live real time data should be available in a few days.

A huge thank you to Alan Brattey (Olderalan) and Maryln for assistance today, plus Jim Cornfoot at CML.

This year’s film DYNASTY is a celebration of 60 years of Warren Miller films that reunites the generations. Winterhighland is bringing DYNASTY to Inverness, Perth, Aberdeen and Dundee. Tickets for our Inverness and Perth shows are already on sale.

Visit the DYNASTY page  to view the trailer and get details of ticketing.

A number of other towns and cities in Scotland feature on the Black Diamond tour, for additional venues and dates check out www.warrenmiller.co.uk .

The first day of October brought the first dusting of snow of the approaching winter. While limited to the higher Munros, and just the summits by later in the day, October 2009 started with an early Northerly incursion like last year.

The first lying snow visible on the SSC Hut balcony showed up on the webcam on 3rd October last year and though it’s turned milder through Friday morning, cooler conditions are expected to return for the weekend. Though snow is likely to be restricted to the tops again on Saturday, the Freezing Level could be around Munro Level, so possibly snow at the SSC Hut on Sunday, just a day later than last year.

Over the past couple of weeks the ‘Gorm has taken on a much more noticeably autumnal colour, as shown in the photos below walking up to the SSC Hut. The pleasant afternoon gave way to a heavy sleet by dusk at the Ski Club Hut and it definitely felt like winter is getting near walking back down. Hopefully it wont be too long before the mountain glistens in a genuine winter coat.

Autumn colours on the

Looking up Coire Cas

A late evening post from the Scottish Ski Club Hut on CairnGorm Mountain where the Winterhighland webcams have been repositioned to their Winter position, offering views up the White Lady and over the Funicular to the M1 Poma, plus the hut cam looking over the balcony which is fantastic in winter for gauging new snow falls.

Several parts of the weather station have been upgraded, this has allowed the sensors to be hard wired to the AWS console, instead of relying on a radio signal. The principle advantage of this is that the AWS records wind speeds much more frequently and the reception of data is less prone to radio intereference.

The SSC hut is relatively sheltered by the ‘Gorms standards, and the positioning of the anemometer is not a good indication of wind speeds on the mountain as a whole. However the location was chosen to get an indication of how wind affects the hollow at the foot of the White Lady and in future this will help assess how much less exposed this small part of the mountain is, how that affects snow lie and reliability of the lower White Lady and help in assessing the potential snow making may have to restore the reliability of the lower 1/4r of the White Lady which circumstantially seems to have suffered severely from the Funicular.

It is planned to install two more Automatic Weather Stations to further increase climate data from CairnGorm, one will be mid altitude on the lower slopes and the second mid-way up the middle slopes. These will give truer wind speeds for the middle and lower slopes respectively and provide more useful info for assessing conditions.

Finally for now, a third camera is operating in the SSC Hut, giving a view across the Fiacaill area of Coire Cas.  Last year the cameras went back live for winter on 1st October after the power was switched off to the Ski Club hut during the early autumn for major repairs to the home road and culverts around the Kassbohrer garage - a couple of days later there was snow to be seen. Hopefully the first dusting will appear on the cams before long.

It’s dark, time to head off the hill.

At the end of last week Winterhighland launched it’s annual Photo Competition to find the best Scottish Snow photos for our 2010 Calendar.

We’ve already had over 20 photos submitted with several more waiting to be processed and uploaded to the Photo Competition thread in the forum.

There is only one category this year and it’s basically ‘Scottish Snow’. The only conditions are it must be from late 2007 onwards, be a photo containing snow taken in Scotland. Please only submit your own photos or those you have permission to submit though!

You can send your photos to pix2009@winterhighland.info and you can check out further information and the photos submitted to date in the forum.

As part of an ongoing effort to gather weather data to enable a climatic research study into the future potential for snow making and other optimisation strategies for snow management and snowsports on CairnGorm Mountain, I today took delivery of a Technoline WS2350 AWS (automatic weather station).  Which I’m setting up for use on the lower slopes of CairnGorm Mountain to gather temperature, wet-bulb temperature and wind speed data specifically from the beginner runs served by the Sheiling Trainer Tow.

This AWS will when set up (during the Autumn) give specific data from a mid-point of the lower slopes as well as being configured through a computer data logger to upload data on-line to Winterhighland to give a real-time data feed of weather conditions on the lower mountain.

To both log the data for future research and to enable the on-line provision of weather data in real-time the AWS requires to be connected to a PC. Though the Technoline weather stations come with their own Windows software called ‘Heavy Weather’, Winterhighland is using re-furbished second hand P3 computers operating Ubuntu Linux and an open source suite of applications called ‘Open2300′. Open2300’s apps provide the direct interface between the Winterhighland data processing scripts and the AWS console.

This use does not require particularly powerful computers, thus Winterhighland has chosen to buy and re-use second hand small form factor P3 computers as previously used for the Loch Morlich AWS and the SSC Hut webcams.

Adding RAM and hard drive to second hand small form factor P3 PC.

Unlike the WS3600 model of weather station which has been used for the past 2 winter seasons at the Scottish Ski Club Hut adjacent to the mid-station on CairnGorm Mountain, the WS2350 model does not have a slatted radiation shield for the thermo-hygro sensor, only a solid plastic rain cover. This makes it susceptible to ‘over heating’ at times of the day when it’s exposed to direct sunlight. Despite the best efforts to place the temperature sensor in the shade, this problem has been evident with our Loch Morlich unit during sunny mornings at the height of summer.

To alleviate this issue I’ve been experimenting with a home made fan aspirated radiation shield, driven by a small fan powered when the sun is strong by a solar panel designed for a small ornamental fountain! Lacking the solid bottom plate when the photo was taken, this screen has shown a temperature as much as 5°c lower than the WS2350 sensor in standard housing when exposed to direct sunlight, showing a significant improvement in temperature accuracy on warm sunny days.

Experimental Fan Asspirated Radiation Screen for WS2350

One final photo shows the rebuilt P3 computer running Ubuntu Linux set up as a temporary work station in the garden shed where it was easy to provide a cable connection to the WS2350 sensors.  With a cabled connection the update frequency is greatly increased which will help provide more accurate gust wind speed figures.

Rebuilt P3 hooked up to the WS2350 in a shed for testing.

Now up and running in the shed and online using PCI WiFi cards with external antenna connector, this computer will ultimately upload data to the internet through Winterhighland’s GPRS router in the SSC Hut at 2500ft on CairnGorm by WiFi link to the SSC Hut.