Glencoe
Apologies for releasing an almost week delayed blogpost. I’ve only just found the time to sit down and write this update from last Sunday. It was a quiet day on the hill, especially compared to the previous day of the banked slalom. It was a landmark for me though. Day 34 equals my best yet season from 2 years ago. 34 days of lift assisted snowboarding. All of them at Glencoe Mountain Resort.
Sunday rest-day
Unusually for this season, I had returned back to Glasgow to meet friends then driven up again on Sunday. It was a slow start, but I was up the hill shortly after 10:00am.
It was a very peaceful atmosphere, with barely a soul in the lift lines. The snow had started crispy, but softened up pretty quick in the mild temperatures.
Wind had been predicted, and it was breezy to begin with. They were not running the Cliffhanger, but this may have been done to lack of demand. There was a brief interruption to uplift when the Wall T-bar went down for a while, so they fired up the Cliffy for a period until they got the T-bar running again.
Conditions on the hill
Temperatures are most definitely on the way up. The double figure temperatures were filling the rivers that poured off the hills. But there is still definitely plenty of snow to go around. The top of the mountain has great cover, I found the Rock Garden and Rannoch Glades offered some of the best lines down to the middle mountain, over the little crevasses and on to Mugs Alley.
The snow was a getting softer, but not too sticky. I decided to leave Spring Run and anything beyond and stick to the soft snow to practice more switch riding on Main Basin, Happy Valley and Mugs Alley.
I had a quick look at Etive Glades, but there seemed to be more rock than snow, so I just took some photos of the Buachaille instead.
Visibility was good with only the odd patch of mist drifting across the very top.
The most notable thing about the hill today, was just how quiet it was.
I’ll keep it short
This isn’t a long post, it was almost a week ago now that I equaled my record amount of days. I’m packed and ready for Saturday 21st April which will be day 35 and a new record. By all accounts the weather is looking good, so fingers crossed for a blinder day.
As ski areas across the northern hemisphere close for the season, Glencoe is still offering uplift and will do so till the 7th May. There may even be some fresh snowfall on the cards!
