Glencoe Mountain Resort

Looking at the low hanging cloud I was having one of those ‘will I, won’t I’ mornings.

But I subscribe to the belief ‘a bad day in the mountains is better than a good day in the office’.  I was going to hang on to that belief as it was a wet ride up the mountain on the chair. The cloud moved fast and there was the very occasional bright spell, but overall this would be one damp day, and not conducive to picture taking I would realise.

Conditions on the hill

I didn’t get up to the summit till 10 o’clock, I was in no real rush to ride in the rain, but on reaching Main Basin I found the snow was holding up well. Despite temperatures of 10º in the carpark the night before, there had been a ‘heavy dusting’ of snow on the tops. The soft snow continued down to the Wall and this was my run of choice for a good part of the morning.

It was above freezing at the summit and a venture over to Spring Run proved worth while. The fresh snow was wide across the top and down the left side of Spring Run. The snow had soaked up a fair bit of rain and was a bit sticky, but Spring Run is steep enough for you to maintain momentum. I think this superseded by earlier choice run for favourite.

Running out of Spring Run and onto Mugs Alley was OK. Its just about holding together, but the slight uphill to the Wall T-bar proved a bit tricky if you didn’t have the speed. I found I had to unstrap a couple of times.

I took a fun jaunt down the Canyon, which had changed quite a bit since the day before. The thaw means the snow in the Canyon starts to fall away and reveal the river that flows underneath. This happens every spring, but I was surprised to see how large the crevasse was since I hadn’t noticed it the day before.

I stopped for a coffee to warm up and found that I was pretty keen to get back up the hill. Despite the soggy start to the day, I was really enjoying the snow conditions. It was slushy as you’d expect, but this also meant most of the bumps were smoothed out. Visibility came and went, but at no time was it a complete white out.

I alternated between Main Basin & Wall combo then Spring Run & Mugs Alley for the rest of the afternoon and took my last run down the hill just before 4 o’clock. 

I surprised myself at how long I stayed out. 

What does the future hold

The lower part of the mountain has broken up and the mid mountain is getting close to it too. However, there is talk of blizzards on the way. Some say that April will be a month of cold temperatures and snow. Wishful thinking? Let’s hope not.