PROMISES ON FRI 30th OF ALL LIFTS and ALL RUNS OPEN ON SATURDAY with fresh snow,get up there early.What a disgrace.Nothing but ice and rocks on a lot of runs.Yes i accept snow blows off and it gets scoured but we arrived after a6 hour drive to find THREE RUNS OPEN(for £20).Mugs Alley (green Run/access) had a 4/5ft drop in it consisting of rocks and ice,numerous people crashing out,nothing at all been done to try and eradicate it.Spoke to loads of mainly scottish people(who were also leaving at dinner time)that all felt the same way.Glencoe will loose a lot of custome if it carries on like this.I am not being bitter and twisted an honest report would be suffice.Went to Nevis Range Sunday 1stFEB with promises of marginal conditions due to wind,rain and thin snow lower down and had a great day (we new what to exspect)Nevis Range were honest, even warned us at ticket office about possible poor conditions.Glencoe and pro Glencoe reporters were not and will find there numbers further dwindling if it carries on.

Nick,

Did you read the ski report (posted at the ticket office) before you went up on saturday morning? I guess not - as it did clearly warn all customers that surface conditions were firm in places, and that the visibility and weather was poor.

Unfortuantly snow conditions change very quickly in Scotland - literlally on a day to day basis. This is a problem for all the scottish ski centres.

As a season ticket holder at Glencoe I find the reporting to be usually very reliable and honest.

Doug.

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Post Edited (10:00 hrs on Mon 02 Feb 04)

I also was skiing at Glencoe at the weekend and sorry Nick, but I have to strongly disagree with your comments.

Firstly (as Doug has already pointed) out, things change very quickly in this country and reading a report on Friday and then finding on Saturday that you didn't get what you expected suggests that you don't ski much in this country. The report at the bottom of the hill on the day is the most reliable of any and they were very honest about the conditions. The last thing they want is people like yourself going up there with high expectations (because of reading an out of date report) and getting less then they expected.

Secondly, when you say nothing but ice and rocks on a lot of the runs where exactly were you skiing? I saw very little 'ice' (in fact this is not even ice but frozen snow you are talking about). A few rocks about yes, but not as many as you are suggesting.

And a 4/5 ft drop? Where exactly? I think because of the misty conditions things appeared much worse than they seem. The only 4/5 ft drop on the lower half of the hill is in 'The Hole' under the Cliffhanger chairlift (which is not part of Mugs Alley) and Thrombosis (beside Mugs ALley) which sometimes has a big drop in it.

As I said on Friday afternoon in the Glencoe Thread "you have to be there to make the most of any potentially good conditions". It's so true. If you ski 10 days in Scotland in a row the chances are you'll only have a couple of good ones. This is not The Alps.

Lastly, forecasts and forecasters are not always accurate and the wind on Friday night and Saturday morning was very strong. Coupled with the skiers/boarders that are on these runs the snow can be scraped off and leave some harder snow and rocks below.

The conditons at the weekend were by no means perfect but I thought the skiing at the top of the hill was good both days particularly on Sunday.

I agree with Brucey and Doug above. Nick - if you had checked the forecast properly you'd have seen that Mugs Alley was reporting hard icy patches in places.

I phoned first before I went up for the weekend and they gave me a very accurate report. Don't know where you got your information from.

And Saturday wasn't too bad - just the visibility wasn't so good. SUnday was very good though with fantastic boarding at the top of the hill. Theres a great cover of snow there too and it made our drive up very worthwhile. Even though the car park seemed full there was virtually no queuing all weekend! Thanks Glencoe staff!!

I suspect most people were surprised to find the snow conditions that met them on Saturday at Glencoe - we'd spent the week getting excited about the onset of soft whiteness. Unfortunately a rise in temperature on Friday saw the falling snow turn to sleet. It would appear that the base refroze as night fell, with dry snow falling on top.

Conditions certainly changed between Friday and Saturday. From my experience of the weekend, I don't feel that conditions were being misreported on the day however. Glencoe staff are trying their hardest to ensure that people enjoy their time on the hill - as you suggest Nick, it is in no-ones interest to give 'false' reports.

The ski patrol do their best to cover the whole hill but rely to an extent on skiers/boarders as an information source. If you come accross potential hazards on the slope you should report them to the ski patrol or one of the lift staff. Saftey is the first concern of every member of staff - I think you will find them very helpful in this regard.

Unfortunately the vagaries of british weather are such that if you participate in outdoor activities then you have to take the bad with the good! I travelled to the outskirts of Manchester for a sailing competition with my son at the end of last year (an 8 hour drive from where I live) - and despite the promising forcasts for strong winds we were met with virtually flat calm conditions - I didn't notice anyone complaining to the organisers and bemoaning the high cost of entry fees!

yea, i was up on Saturday and Sunday - so saturday had poor visibility, but that was it - i went down Mugs alley and it definelty had no drop in - but i did only go down it once as i was going down all the other runs that were open - obviously what you menat to say was that all but three runs were open - as this was the case - only Flypaper, Spring Run, and Etive glades were shut - and if you are brave im sure you could have gone down the spring run or etive glades as well.

If you went to the meeting on Saturday night then you would know that Glencoe are doing a lot to try and get the ski centre running, and a lot of people are putting a lot of effort inot it, including volunteers, i think that before complaining about made up problems you should think about them - i personally had a very enjoyable weekend up Glencoe - thanks to everyone whos making it work.

What meeting on Saturday night is Craig talking about? Any chance of other skiers getting in on this?

I was up on Saturday too and it was far from ice and rocks there was great skiing in the main basin and plateau run. The only reason any runs were shut was due to the visibility. I skied the etive glades and the spring run with no problems and I'm sure you could of taken on the flypaper if you'd dared. Obviously there would of been some ice about as there had been a drastic thaw along with heavy rain followed by a freeze. Fair enough it was'nt exactly family condition's but even the most optomistic of forecasts predicted snow all day. I agree that more could of been done to piste some areas but is there any staff actually availible to do this? I'm guessing that yourself like many thought that the artic blast had dumped masses of snow. We had loads more snow in low lying areas earlier in the year and it was'nt a media frenzy. Seems it only becomes an artic storm when 2 inches of snow fall in surrey. Anyway I suggest you study the forecasts more carefully next time.

The majority of reports I have heard were that snow conditions on the upper slopes at Glencoe were actually pretty good, and the reports did warn that Mugs Alley was thin and narrow, and also hard/icy because the middle slopes had been scoured by the wind overnight. Did those that are complaining only go up to the middle then down Mugs Alley and because it was a green run, decided it was bad so the entire mountain must be even worse?

There is an issue here about customer satisfaction, but there are also issues about people properly checking conditions at the bottom of the mountain before handing over their cash. However conditions change fast. So a suggestion, how about a period of grace on the lift passes, where if you return to the ticket office in that time you can exchange your ticket for a voucher for a future day pass if you decide its not for you up there, say perhaps an hour, given at Glencoe and Nevis you need time to get up the mountain and get down.

This could be good for both customer and resort, people will know they have the guarantee if its marginal, that if they change their mind, they can hand bakc their ticket in this hour, and they can come back another day and use the ticket they paid for again. Thus more people might buy tickets which is good for the resorts, because they know they've got the chance to change their mind. Secondly, the odds are that customer that decided sod this after 20mins, has already bought or will by something to munch or drink before leaving, and with voucher in hand will leave a bit dissapointed, but not feeling ripped off thus will probably come back another day to use the voucher. When they'll again probably at least spend some money either in cafes or the shop (good for the area). Alternatively the ski area can keep that £50 from that family that left after 20mins, they leave feeling cheated, and might not come back ever, and that in the long run is not good for the ski area.

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A point worth mentioning Alan, last year at Nevis I went for a day (3 hour drive) and bought my ticket faithfully. It began to rain in torrents almost immediatly upon arrival at the top station, and the wind was fierce. I attempted a few runs but I was the only sod on the mountain and soon had to accept a much earlier than planned trip back down the gondola! (this was approx an hour) With no financial gain in mind I spoke to the ticket office explaining that the conditions were becoming horrendous and I was calling it a day. Another ticket was issued to me for use on another day with an appology and a smile :-) Now I'm not saying that this is policy or anything but I can't think of better service than that, and the lassie that does the rolls in the hut at the bottom of goose gully always has a smile and time for a chat............Keep it up Nevis!
Ineresting to note that Visitscotland.com are giving a current windspeed on Nevis this morning as 1550 mph !!!!.................Guess I'll wait until tomorrow!!...........that made me laugh.

Here's hoping for another arctic blast!........soon.

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Post Edited (09:12 hrs on Tue 03 Feb 04)

Alan. Your suggestion sounds excellent to me. Business must always be customer-focused. I've been lucky enough to enjoy most of my days on Scottish ski hills with an instructor's season pass, so an aborted day was no loss to me. As a punter I'd be highly miffed to walk away with a wasted investment, on top of all the other costs of going and returning.

I was up Glencoe on Sunday and had a great time. Yup near white-outs and cloud a lot near the top but NO Queus!!! many times I was skiing straight onto the up lifts. Did get pretty soaked and the occasional rock to dodge but main problem was variable visibility but hey Glencoe has a great name for challenging conditions so all in all I had a great mini adventure and came away thoroughly satisfied.

Once again a big thankyou to all the staff at Glencoe. Is it just me or is it even friendlier? Glad there was plenty of food this time as they had sold out two weeks previous and surviving a day on one packet of skittles is tough. Praying for more next weekend

Ok,Ok,it looks like my views have been well and truly defeated.but i did check the snow report above the ticket office windowbefore going up,and i have skied in worse weather than saturday(many times in scotland)but i just thought along with alot of others,that the runs were awful. Maybe some of us are just not hard enough for Glencoe(must be the toughest ski area in scotland- with access,runs etc) However what iwill say is that i have had good ski days their in the past and hope to have in the future.but maybe i need to ski elsewhere unless theconditions/visabilty are better. I like some of the ideas posted earlier especially mugwumps and i dont wish Glencoe any harm but maybe it could do with some lottery funded investment,but the winters getting milder we are all fighting alosing battle.Just look at the temps today-unbeleivable