Scottish Mountain Winter Snowfall

[skifreak]

1994 was a huge snow year esp for the West, but the Western Areas were also affected by high winds esp in the depths of Winter. So much snow fell in 1994 that Glencoe's upper lifts didn't operate for the bulk of the winter as they were completely burried, repeated attempts to dig them out including airlifting JCB's up the mountain proved fruitless as each time the wind got up and filled it all back in again.

Glencoe finally got the Top tows dug out and functioning for the Mayday weekend in 1994 - see attached image of the Top T-bar (you should not be able to reach the cable even with a tip of your ski stick held up by an outstreached arm at its lowest point, in this photo the sheave assemblies on the towers were below waist height and that was after digging out!)

Glencoe traditionally shut after the Mayday Monday and would re-open the Access Chair for summer sightseers in June. In 1994 Glencoe re-opened for snowsports on Saturday 28th May - but the season came to a premature end a couple of weeks later when the gearbox on the Access Chair packed in!

1994 also stands out as the high water mark for CairnGorm Mountain notching up 425,000 skier days.

Edited February 2, 2007 by skifreak

[kippure]

1994 also stands out as the high water mark for CairnGorm Mountain notching up 425,000 skier days.

Thats insane looking

[Mondy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highla...nds/6351339.stm

[MKN]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highla...nds/6351339.stm

Another incident to add to the growing list lately it seems.

[Zerouali lives]

Not really a 'mountain' post but I have some interesting findings from Saturday's snow event in NE Scotland having travelled through much of Aberdeenshire on Sunday. Being away from the sea (inland) was a far more important ingrediant than altitude when it came to snow potential. Highest point in Aberdeen (135m) about 4 miles from the coast and there was hardly any snow on Saturday. On Sunday, I noticed places like Torphins, Alford, Aboyne had between 6-10" from Saturday's blizzards. All these places are of similar altitude to the highest point in Aberdeen city, the only differnce is that these villages are arounf 30 miles inland. Just shows how much of a killer above average North Sea SST's can be.

Edited February 12, 2007 by Zerouali lives

[Ross B]

Dragging this one back up.

Should be heading into the mountains tommorrow, not been for a while because of a knee injury

Not sure on location yet, will update later. No idea how far we will get either as the dogs are coming with us, lol.

The weather tommorrow doesn't look brilliant, rain showers with snow above about 1000m. Going to feel really warm i think, conditions look set to get better in the coming week for the mountains though (after tuesday,,,)

[Zerouali lives]

Today's 12z is not very good for most snow lovers but it will do for the Scottish ski resorts. Tonight/Tomorrow looks very promising with some deep drifts and accumulations likely. With jet taking a more southerly tracking this week, snow showers throughout the week should continually 'top up' existing cover.

Would love a drive to Ballatar and beyond (although that might not be possible due to drifting snow) tomorrow morning!

[Ross B]

There was barely any snow cover visible below 1000m at the weekend around the Loch Lomond area (i know there will be some in corries etc) Hopefuly not too much of the snow that falls tommorrow morning will be lost when it turns to rain in the afternoon....

Then it doesn't look bad and hopeufly be able to get into the mountains at the weekend, weather and knee permitting

[Norrance]

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QUOTE(Ross B @ 26 Feb 2007, 08:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There was barely any snow cover visible below 1000m at the weekend around the Loch Lomond area (i know there will be some in corries etc) Hopefuly not too much of the snow that falls tommorrow morning will be lost when it turns to rain in the afternoon....

Then it doesn't look bad and hopeufly be able to get into the mountains at the weekend, weather and knee permitting

A lot of it has gone I'm afraid and taken some of the older snow with it in places. I was up in Highland Perthshire today and found bare slopes with only patches and the remnants of older snow to over 2000 Feet. In lower areas the only evidence of yesterdays snow are some piles at the edges of car parks and sides of the road. Raining today particularly further West with a strong wind but temps dropping and bright ints appearing in the afternoon.

[kippure]

Lots of snow on the way to boost the end of the sking season. Lots of scottish sites have producing some great conditions.

Looks like there ending on a great note.

Here

Edited March 16, 2007 by kippure

[Ross B]

Well, i was up at 1044m yesterday (stob coir' an albannaich) and there was barely any snow left, just a few patches.. I suppose yesterdays morning rain would of washed a lot of it away and the snow on the back edge of the front amounted to pretty much nothing.

(will post pics later)

[skifreak]

It's about 2 degrees warmer than expected atm on CairnGorm which is a bit of a kick up rear because after being -5c last night had hoped for a real dent to be put in the ground temperatures with at least a good surface layer frost, not a bit more thawing today.

Just about anything could happen over the next five days, hopefully the heaviest precip will be over the ski areas and not just off the coast of Peterhead this time! Also the strength of the wind, such a strong Northerly throws up it's own issues and makes things even less predictable in terms of how the ski areas are going to gain or not gain, Lecht will probably do best out of this set up and they can always fire up the snow cannons to maximise the snow depth on the beginner area.

At CairnGorm though there isn't a great deal of terrain open, the key burn courses that make the main natural snowfields have at least something of a base, the Cas Gunbarrel esp so. Getting the initial base down there is usually more than half the battle, and it's these natural snow fields that are the longest lasting runs, so are the most important. The lower and exposed ridge line fence runs fill much easier so they can go from nowt to skiable more quickly. Basically it's wait, watch and hope!

Anyway why did we build ski areas on North facing slopes when the wind direction where precipitation is most likely to be snow is Northerly?

Photos from a way to spring like and windy CairnGorm on Thursday (it was a steady 55 to 60mph mean wind at the top):

http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pi....php?pix_id=327

[skifreak]

*bump*

A photo that sums up the past five days on CairnGorm Mountain. Blue sky and stacks of spring sunshine underwhich to enjoy some excellent granular spring snow on the upper and mid mountain runs which are open.

More:

Fri: http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pi....php?pix_id=335

Sat: http://www.winterhighland.info/2006/pix/pi....php?pix_id=336

Mon: http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/pixalbum.php?pix_id=338

[NorthYorksWeather]

great pics skifreak, maybe i should start going skiing to scotland in march instead of feb

[Ross B]

Tommorrows forecast is brilliant!

http://www.mwis.org.uk/mountain/WH.PDF

>90% chance of cloud free Munros, that doesn't happen often!

It should make for some good photo opportunities if theres still a good bit of lying snow on the tops

[skifreak]

Such views as these:

Summit Gully, Back Corries, Nevis Range on Sun 1st April.

[Mark Bayley]

Nice picture