I always used to manage a trip up to scotland in spring and had some great conditions, especially around Braveheart.

However checking reports has the Braveheart chair at Nevis run at all in the past 2 seasons?

Presumably the issue is no snow low down to load the chair, or is it broken?

cheers and fingers crossed for March storms!

regards,

greg

i know exactly how you feel! that chair is a joke! it gives access to the only decent terrain at nevis range and yet never seems to run!

mind you, even when it does run it's not the best - seeing as you still have to walk back out the top bit or take that silly great glen chair all the way round the side.

presumably alan will be able to provide some real reasons for it not running, rather than me just ranting!

Quite simple really - there is no where near enough snow in that area.

Braveheart provides the best skiing at Nevis Range but does need alot of snow to cover all the rocks. It fills in best on West and North Westerly winds, something we haven't had a huge amount of this season.

As far as I can remember it hasn't run since 2001 but I might well be wrong on that count.

Still some fresh snow on the hills this afternoon so you never know.... fingers crossed.

The braveheart chair is a supreme feat of planning.

I know why don't we construct a chair that loads in a marginal snow area with little other than shovels to help the cause. Then we'll have the getoff point below the best skiing on the hill and really frustrate the punters. How does that sound? Thats great eh?!

It would be nice to think that a drag lift could be bought from a resort with financial problems (any ideas) and installed about 50m above the top of Braveheart coz we all love a good walk don't we. It could take us up to a point near the top of the backbowl (going to the top would be too obvious) and then we could walk/pole to where we really want to be (launching ourselves off the cornice, which we could jump on and collapse to take out those sleeping on the steep and painfull draglift)

In all honesty, to develop that area would be to provide arguably the best lift access skiing in Scotland.

Join the cause, take one for the team!

All those in favour, raise your hands.

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I've been lucky enough to ski Coire Dubh in good conditions and there's no doubt it's awesome. Braveheart was run pretty often in the 2001 - 2002 season. I agree though that the very best bit is the drop from the headwall cornice down to the top of the chair! That said, I can't see any way of building a lift to cover that part of the coire: a surface lift would be hugely unsafe, and as it gets pretty windy on the ridge, I don't think you could put a chairlift up there. In any case - given the nature of the terrain - Nevis Range probably wouldn't want more people going into the Coire, as the disaster potential is quite substantial.....

It's worth pointing out though that Nevis Range already has the best lift accessible skiing in Scotland. Summit Gully is about a 5 min walk from the top of the summit tow and is an absolutely awesome late season run. Easy Gully is closer still but you need to pick your conditions carefully for that one. The run out from both takes you to the bottom of the Braveheart Chair, so it's definitely a bonus if it's running; but speaking from personal experience the walk out isn't that bad - it takes about 20 - 25 mins to reach a level from which you can traverse out of the coire. I have no idea though if that would be doable at the moment though.

this thread has just reminded of something i've been meaning to ask for a while:

has anyone actually ridden the back corries this season (and hiked out obviously)? has there been enough snow at all?

i remember doing a run there called spikes or something like that a few years ago - it was amazing - possibly my best day ever in scotland.

Those two pictures ones that were sent to us from the 17th January 2004 at Nevis Range.

As can be seen in the bottom one, the Braveheart Chairlift, I think around this time it was going to be scheduled to operate, but never did. Notice some of the avalanche shelter is missing...

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Post Edited (20:12 hrs on Thu 18 Mar 04)

AAAAAAAAAAAH! GRRRRR!!

i knew i shouldn't have asked that question! it looks amazing!

I remember that day well, the first thing I heard and saw when I left the top gondola station that morning was a bang and a puff of smoke rising over the ridge as ski patrol blew some of the cornice.

I think Corrie Dubh opened about midday but the wait for the summit button lift just to access it took about 20 minutes, one of the reasons I only "went over" twice that day. It would have been far easier if the Warrens T-Bar had been running but it was broken that day, typical!

The snow was pretty darn good, though with the Braveheart chair not running the vertical you could ride without hiking wasn't huge. I remember watching one skier make fresh tracks all the way under the chair in virgin snow well below the point where you can traverse out the corrie and thinking, it can't be worth it. Now two months on and with it looking unlikely I'll get to ride Corrie Dubh again this year I wish I had followed!

Interesting in that photo 2/3rds of the sides of the avalanche shelter and chair top station are missing. Did it get hit?

Some years ago I spoke to Blyth Wright from the SAIS about this lift, and he reckoned it went as far as it was possible to go. If it went any higher, not only would the risk of avalanches doing substantial damage increase, there would the possibility of it being completely burried.

The depths of snow that can build on scarp slopes of a Coire are phenominal, combined with avalanches it would be very difficult to take a lift out of Coire Dubh. Rope Tow? ok maybe not! :p

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What about another funicular? Right through the mountain from the bottom of the coire and ending just beside the cornices! Sounds like a good plan to me!