Scottish Ski & Winter Activity Report // The General Situation for CairnGorm, Glenshee, Lecht, Nevis Range & Glencoe // Winterhighland

A beautiful Friday in the hills, but it wont be a flat calm on Saturday morning, so if you are getting on the road early in the morning for a Saturday slide, please keep up to date with the latest situation and be prepared to be flexible with your plans! Pop the snowphone numbers at the foot of this page in your mobile, or check out our mobile website or get our iPhone app.

Snow will have reached most areas by daybreak and will already be setting in quite hard in the West, with blizzard and at higher elevations whiteout conditions on Southerly gales. By lift opening time the NMM projects 2-4 inches of fresh snow in the West and at least a covering in the East.

The FL will rise during the morning and fall back in the late afternoon, there could be a period of wet heavy snow being driven down Northern aspects on the Southerly gales, followed by a drop in temperature. It's what we call good base building weather here in Scotland. The NMM has Glencoe and Glenshee getting the biggest falls.

Sunday should be a better day and it could be a good one with an improved base and new fresh on top, so to some extent today's report could be historical info by Sunday - hopefully for the better.

Glenshee have been making snow on Claybokie and around the cafe to further improve access around the Cairnwell area. The Cairnwell RaceTracks and Butchart's Coire are offering good sport, Tom Dearg and Coire Fionn have good cover, if rather firm on stepper pitches, Sunnyside and Caenlochan mainly for access.

The new Baddoch Chair has greatly improved access to the Cairnwell side, though it is now possible to ski back to the carpark.

On CairnGorm the drifting snow earlier in the week has greatly improved the top of the Traverse and the Coire Cas Gunbarrel. The Top Basin runs are in decent shape, with a run to the mid-station via the Traverse and Coire Cas runs offering 1300ft of vertical. See Pix from the Slopes for full report.

Coire Cas T-bar now full length, West Wall Poma is loading at the foot of the Ciste Fairway near the top of the Chairlift. Further down the Ciste the Gully burn is largely frozen over, hopefully snow will get blown down and stick during Saturday, could we at last see the start of a base down there?

Glencoe can operate all uplift if demand needs the top Button. Snow is hardpacked with icy patches generally, some pockets of windblown loose snow, no change in coverage since the video report from last Friday - check it out for an idea of cover. The Spring Run and The Wall are offering the best sport, less hard and more grippy. Sharp edges will greatly boast the enjoyment factor and allow you to make the most of the decent cover. Old Mugs Alley is in better condition than Mugs Alley. Plateau Run skiable but thin / narrow, but more than adequate for getting to/from the main area.

The Lecht has some main runs complete and snow making has greatly freshened up the nursery slopes which are all in good shape and the lower Grouse. Snowy Owl and skiers left of the Grouse are in the best nick. Further Snow making on beginner runs and lower Grouse.

Nevis Range is offering the Summit Runs and the Goose on the front, but the Goose is scoured and hard esp lower down, stick to the groomed areas. Much more extensive cover in the Back Corries, these are being assessed daily but have recently been at the "Not patrolled' status. More detailed report and photos in Pix from the Slopes.

:: English Club Fields

Raise is able to offer several runs of the full length of the Poma. The rope tow was also out last Sunday extending the lifted vertical. Check the snowphone on 015395 35456 for details of proposed open days. You must join the club to use the facilities at Raise due to insurance restrictions.

Weardale has been open this week, but the cover is thin. Check www.skiweardale.com for the latest.

Yad Moss was open on Friday from 10.30am. www.yadmoss.co.uk for the latest. Thin cover, but holding up with the cold temps.

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:: Park Report

CairnGorm: (3/2) Coire Cas mini park currently offers 1 narrow rail, 1 wide rail with gap, 1 box, 1 wide dancefloor box, plus 1 small kicker.

Ptarmigan Terrain Park has a box, tyre jib and a selection of 5 rails of varying shapes and dimensions.

Glenshee: (3/2) Butchart's Coire is set up for the Highlander Comp this weekend which means the park will be unavailable to the public during the comp. Currently offers a 12m box, 6m butter box, 10m flat-down box, 3m rookie box, 6m bawbreaker rail , 3m narrow rail and a kicker with varied takeoffs.

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:: Stay up to date on the go...

With our mobile reports, just point your phone's browser to winterhighland.info . Our ultra low bandwidth mobile website is designed to be usable even on the slowest rural connections.

If you've got an iPhone, get the Winterhighland App from the App Store, it's the fastest way to get updates with the least bandwidth!

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:: Mountain Weather Outlook

High pressure to the East will hold at bay Atlantic systems for one more day giving a fine Friday.

Snow will be into the West overnight and showers will have reached most if not all Highland mountains by daybreak on Saturday. Atlantic weather systems will make erratic progress Eastwards, the FL will trend upwards from near the surface to be between Munro Level and just above the highest summits, before falling back later in the afternoon. Severe Southerly gales in the morning, gusting as high as 75mph will ease slowly during the afternoon to be around 30 gusting 45 to 50mph. Whiteout conditions during snow fall at higher levels.

Sunday could be a reasonable day with further fresh snow overnight, further snow showers in more Northern and Western areas continuing through the day, but the Southern Cairngorms could be mostly dry. Much lighter winds, West to WNW around 20 gusting 30mph. FL around 2000ft with -2°c expected at Munro Level.

Early indications have high pressure ridging in for Monday, which could give a fine day for getting out into the hills, the risk of a milder sector pushing through later in the day has diminished according to the 12z forecast model ensemble runs.

Please check the latest Mountain Weather Information Service or Met Office Forecasts for updates.

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:: Ski Area Contact Numbers & Websites

Glencoe: 01855 851226 www.glencoemountain.co.uk
Nevis Range: 01397 705825 www.nevisrange.co.uk
Lecht: 01975 651440 www.lecht.co.uk
CairnGorm: 01479 861261 www.cairngormmountain.co.uk
Glenshee: 013397 41320 www.ski-glenshee.co.uk

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:: Winterhighland Webcams & Automatic Weather Stations

We've refreshed our Webcam pages, so live weather from relevant stations is displayed on each page along with operational Status and information about any outages.

CairnGorm SSC: www.winterhighland.info/cams/cairngorm-mountain

Mountain Spirit, Aviemore: www.winterhighland.info/cams/aviemore

Glencoe Cams: www.winterhighland.info/cams/glencoe

Loch Morlich: www.winterhighland.info/cams/cairngorm-mountain/morlich.php

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