Three days in a row

I awoke in the carpark Sunday morning, day three of my long weekend. There had been mixed reports regarding the weather. Inversions, cloud, wind and even sun was suggested earlier in the week. It was warmer in the carpark and there were gusts of wind at the foot of the mountain. Possibly a foreshadowing of what was to come.

Now that I have no cafe to distract me with breakfast, I went straight up the hill. The cloud was high and the wind was definitely making itself known. The prediction was for it to strengthen, so all the more reason to make the most of World Snow Day at Glencoe.

Conditions on the hill

There had been no snowfall overnight, but maybe a touch of drifting. The snow had held up though and the mid mountain had enough to go around for the visitors that made it up early. Both the Cliffy and Wall T-bar were running, and much like the day before, the Wall would see most of the action.

Without the fresh covering it was slightly more choppy with some sheet ice at the top toe keep you on your toes. The face of the Wall was pretty good though. It was also pretty steep in places as we found to our surprise.

It was also suggested to take a look at Etive Glades, of which it seemed would surely be as scoured as the tops of the mountain, but, to be fair we did get a few wind blown pockets of softer stuff before we were back on the Wall.

Mugs Alley was surprisingly nice. Although it still needs to fill in quite a bit, what was there, beside the fences was grippy and great to turn in.

World Wind Day

I was surprised the Cliffy was still running as the wind did feel stronger than the day before when it closed, but we did manage to get a few laps on it before stopping for a second coffee around lunch time. We had noticed earlier the ticket sales had been suspended as the wind was gusting pretty hard on the access lift. 

No sooner had I finished my coffee when it was announced that all uplift had stopped and we all had to make our way to the access lift to get off the mountain.

Annoyingly we couldn’t get higher to make one last run, but instead too the path from the cafe to the lengthy queue that was waiting to descend. Some suggested the hike down, but I went for the easy option.It was pretty blowy and holding extra tight on to my gear as we descended.

It was fate I think. I had planned for an early finish anyway, but the wind sealed the deal and made my mind up for me. I’m sure most were disappointed, but it was the best thing to do. The last thing we need is for a lift failure on top of everything else.

Here’s hoping the following few day are fair enough for others to make the most of the snow while it’s still there. It’s going to be mild this week, so let’s hope we return to colder conditions soon. Now that we have a base, we need to hang on to it!