Glencoe Mountain Resort
Saturday, this would not be a full day. The forecast was miserable and the hill looked to be set in white-out conditions all day.
I had three reasons to go up though, in no particular order.
- Continue my run of days for fourth day in a row.
- Try my new Lib Tech Box Knife, a shorter more flexible board than my Phoenix.
- To meet Steve and Chris, who were making their way over from Edinburgh.
Conditions on the hill
Since I was in Glasgow, and I knew the conditions were marginal, I thought it best to wait until Glencoe announced they were open. I was worried the winds would stop play as they were forecast to be 40mph with 60mph gusts.
Steve messaged me from the hill to update me they were indeed open.
When I met the guys on the hill it was once again a nausea inducing white room on the hill.
We did a couple of runs of Mugs Alley, one directly behind the groomer just to lead the way, then I took them down Rankin’s Return to the Red Car Park Run.
I scooted towards the untouched wind packed snow nearer the lift. It was firm and taking on moisture from the southerly winds, but at least it was below the cloud base.
We could see each other now.
It was raining slightly when we got to the Ossian Cafe where we stopped for coffee.
Chris and Steve were up for one more run. We took the Access Lift and this time concentrate on the central part of the Access run avoiding the heather towards the bottom. Where I said goodbye before going back up the hill.
Lib Tech Box Knife
The latest board I’m trying was something I meant to get last year. Poor snow meant this was pointless.
This season however looks as though we’ll have plenty of Spring Snow when the days get longer. So I wanted something shorter, more flexible, but still capable of handling a day at Glencoe.
I was originally looking at getting Lib Tech Box Scratcher, but this was too freestyle for me. The Box Knife, was more of an all-mountain freestyle board with blunt twin tips that should allow me to press and try getting closer to achieving butters and the like.
My usual board, the JL Phoenix is pretty stiff and I can barely pull the nose off the ground.
With the limited runs I had on the Box Knife it was definitely more squirrelly and manoeuvrable but handled the lumps on the Access Run thanks in part to the Magne-Traction that features on all Lib Tech boards. This gives the edge a bit more bite. I’ll have a better opportunity to test it out tomorrow. I’m staying in Coe tonight as Sunday is looking more promising. It’s snowing again as I type.
Here’s hoping for some clarity tomorrow.