Hi Jim,

Please feel free. Sorry didn't get back to you, but been in the saddle all day!

looks like the weather is going to great for this...

shame I'm working and 4 hours away

have fun....

go slide....

A chàirdean / Friends,

Thanks for a great day today. I have put some info here: [domhnallmorris.blogspot.com]

Extra thanks to Iain, Adam and Glenshee Ski Centre for being so good.

Great day and lovely to meet you all.

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For campervan hire in Scotland visit [www.albacampervans.com] - Bhanaichean Campachaidh ann an Alba

Just wanted to thank Adam and Firefly for today's meet. They even supplied great weather! A very interesting insight into what is required to maintain accurate snowpatch records year after year and it was great to witness the enthusiasm of Adam, Firefly and Da Kishman first hand. If I see any snowpatches in future forays into the hills I will take note and make sure I take a quick photo - every little helps.

Thanks also to Glenshee for putting on the Cairnwell chairlift for us and to Willie from the Glenshee management team who took the time to chat to us about the ski centre.

Adam's guide to the local hills, the flora and fauna that exists there and how the environment is constantly changing was first class - a reminder to me that if you know where to look there are interesting things to see literally at the end of your boot.

It was also great to see everyone and finally put some faces to names - H1lly, Jamie, HTH, DonaldM, Firefly, Da Kishman, RJ and Alan. Apologies if I have missed anyone out who I chatted to!

Aye, cheers to all involved. A good day out! Great to meet and listen to Adam, and also nice to put faces to some of the names from this forum.

I recommend it to anybody thinking about going next year

I echo everything said above. It was a very interesting day. Thank you Adam, Firefly and Glenshee for making it happen.



Helen

Well done Adam, Iain & Willie form Glenshee. Fantastic day and great weather.
If you missed it this year put in your diary for 2010.

Thanks, all.

I'm just back in the south-east after a long bike run! I'll chat to Adam and post up a report of the day's proceedings in good time, and set up a page on flickr for photographs. If anyone wants to have any photos put up, please email them to me on iainjamescameron@hotmail.com and I'll include them, giving credit where it's due.

Thanks to all who came!

Thanks to Adam, Iain and Willie. Had a great day out mostly due to the enthusiasm and friendliness of everyone involved.

Top marks for the chocolate cake in the Cairnwell Cafe as well!

Jamie

Repeating all the thanks above - excellent day ! (and the soup was good too !)

Yeh thanks, great day out. Apologies for missing out on the bit at the Claybokie - young lad needed some lunch

May I slightly belatedly echo all off the above. Thanks to everyone who came along for helping make it a fantastic day, but esp big thank you to Glenshee, Iain Cameron and Dr Adam Watson.

I have uploaded a selection of photos from the day in the Pix from the Slopes section of Winterhighland and Iain and Adam Watson are putting together a report on the full day's activities and discussions.

I have put up a blog post Glenshee Q&A that gives an account of the morning discussion with Willie Meston a manager at Glenshee and subsquent Q&A session about the Glenshee Ski Area that will be of specific interest to skiers and boarders.

Once again thanks to everyone who helped make it a fantastic day out in the hills.

Apologies too, for not expressing thanks yet. - It was an exceptional day in every respect, and I wish I'd been able to dedicate the whole day to the trip. It was much more informative than I had hoped, and the level of detail on vegetation & wildlife was something that impressed me. It expanded the way I think of the hills, despite having walked on high ground since I was a lad.

Actually, it was very much like being guided round your favourite hills, by your own personal David Attenborough. A rare treat.

WinterHighlanders, hanging out together


The Master in his element, passing on his infectious enthusiasm:






Edited 2 times. Last edit at 09.46hrs Thu 4 Jun 09 by HTH.

Attachments: Glenshee-CairnwellChair.jpg (79kB)   Glenshee-AdamWatson.jpg (59kB)  

Verily, the sun always shines on the righteous! This belated synopsis of our day on the hill on the 30th May at Glenshee has been delayed due to my recent exams, so an apology first of all is in order.

The day itself? Well, the original planned date of Saturday the 5th June was re-scheduled for a week earlier due to the rapid melting of the snow as a result of warm spring weather. How lucky a decision that proved to be! The 30th May rewarded us with almost unbroken sunshine, warm air (19 Celcius at Glenshee) and razor sharp visibility: so much so, in fact, that the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh were quite clearly visible.

By contrast, the 5th June turned out to be a drab, murky and cool day with frequent rain showers. With the best will in the world, a social day such as the one we had would have been infinitely less enjoyable if we were all in full waterproof garb, with visibility being restricted to a couple of hundred yards. What made it even more sweet for me was the motorbike journey up from Stirling that morning. The stretch from Bridge of Cally to the Spittal was a treat with its winding roads and splendid views. The final dash up the hill to the 2200ft watershed and the welcome site of Glenshee ski centre is a reason why us motorbike riders gloat to our car-driving cousins! There is no better way to travel in the highlands on such a day, and I did feel the Gods were smiling on us from the moment the sun peeped over the hills in the morning.

When we met at 10 a.m., many of us were seeing one another for the first time, although knowing of one another through winterhighland for a long time. Alan Mackay, who runs the winterhighland website, took part for most of the day. In the cafe I spoke about my idea for this meeting. It was a way of thanking those keen volunteers who had contributed observations and photographs of snow patches on winterhighland in the last two years. Before the meeting, I organised the contacts with participants and Adam the arrangements with the ski company.

Adam tells me that his report is not an account of all that we saw, but covers a lot of it. At the start he showed me a clipboard, ruled paper and pen that he was putting into his rucksack for writing notes, and I intended to make notes, but we were all so busy that neither he nor I wrote a word! If you recall something that’s not in Adam’s report and you’d like some words on it, let us know. If there’s a repeat visit next year, we could take a different route for variety. Every part of every hill is different. Though Adam has had a study area at Cairnwell for decades and knows it well, he noticed several things on the 30th that he hadn’t spotted before. His report will follow shortly.




Edited 2 times. Last edit at 12.35hrs Thu 6 Aug 09 by firefly.