Limited Terrain Complete/Open.

4

Windy to start - calmed down in afternoon as predicted by Winterhighland and turned out to be reasonably nice day. Occassional light snow flury. 3 deg C in car park at 10: 30am - with rain at base station until 12 noon

First day of season for Glencoe - pre-Christmas skiing doesn't happen every year. Lifts opened 12 noon after windy start. No stress day with long(er) lie, take it easy breakfast before the 12 noon start - the wonders of a season ticket making it a very worthwhile day. Nice packed powder snow where pisted, a wee bit crusty in places off the groomed line. Plateau, Mugs alley easily accessible. Surprisingly good cover from plateau cafe to beginner rope tow and on to plateau. Mugs alley surprisingly full of snow for this time of the year, a wee bit lumpy in places. A wee bit walking required from bottom of cliffy chair to cafe - again not unusual for pre-Christmas. Some issues with plateau poma that were solved reasonably quickly. No queues - mountain quiet - so in terms of miles skied surprising did more (albeit on easier terrain) than on some busy days last season, despite only being up for 1/2 a day. Only access chair and plateau poma open - although I did hear Andy say at the end of the day that the Wall T bar was now ready to go (however rain for Sunday may not help overall conditions). Really enjoyable day - almost decided not to go up, glad we did

Stephen S; Callum S

Limited Terrain Complete/Open.

4

Bright and often sunny with broken cloud. Light wind other than at exposed points where a strong cold wind was evident. FL below centre elevation.

Still early-season conditions however good skiing to be had. Butcharts access run had full-cover along right side and at top, patchy cover down the run on left-side. Snow quality was very good though scoured hardpack at the very top 70m. Below here was fresh/drifted snow on a firm base which had good grip. The final section to the tow was thin in parts and patchy but skiable. Butcharts Corrie offered the best conditions however the exit gully requires some care in navigation. Also ran Sunnyside but has boilerplate/verglas and very mixed unpleasant snow[!.. if you can call it that] conditions at the top. See pics showing Buthcharts Access run.

BraemarBob, Princess speed.

Limited Terrain Complete/Open.

4

Below freezing at all levels, bright overcast sky to start with but slowly cleared towards mid afternoon. Wind in morning was amusing at the top but once down into the cas and lower slopes it was quite acceptable. As the viability improved the wind dropped and you could actually stand up on the Traverse.

Lots of fresh snow and drifting at all levels. The bare patches of the other day are getting topped up nicely but still thin at the bottom. The home road is much better now,fresh although slow snow to just above the base station where it is still rocky. Jeans's bowl is getting better and better each day but not for the faint hearted, big drifts and deep hollows were there to catch you out. Borders and advanced skiers were having fun in here.

Graeme + John

ordersforgraeme at btinternet dot com