Day 3 of the 14/15 season. The day didn’t start too hopeful. I took a break yesterday and was kicking myself as the weather looked great on the webcams while Glasgow was gloomy under a shroud of fog all day. It looked like Monday may have been the last chance before new year as the wind would pick up. But I got a call on Monday night and thought why not give it a try? On the drive up the mist remained. Low cloud hung, hiding the hills. The road up Loch Lomond side was dank and dark. The temperature was up and the hoar frost from the trees had disappeared. When I arrived at the car park. The upper part of the mountain couldn’t be seen and the mist hung heavy. However word of the last few days must have got out as the car park was almost full.
On the mountain a lot of the snow pack had gone. Temperatures were up and heavy traffic areas were suffering. I took a trip up the Cliffy chair and down Mugs Alley before heading across to the wall T-bar where I met up with friends on the Wall. The cloud base was just above this area, around the rescue hut so we did a few laps here. The snow was good spring type snow with no ice to speak of.
Eventually we hit Main Basin. The snow here was great with a wide cover but poor visibility. The Haggis trap was the main way out and certainly caught a few folk out in exit as skis and bodies littered the snow.
Temperatures had gone up and felt around 4 degrees. Since I hadn’t eaten all day I stopped for lunch at 12 and just after eating my hot bridie the sky cleared and the top could be seen. We made our way to the summit where the wind was whipping the cloud away, revealing stretches of sunny blue!
Clear runs down Main Basin and the Wall combined made for tired thighs but was great fun.
While sharing lifts with fellow sliders, more than one had mentioned how good Spring Run was, so that’s where we went. After the walk along the summit ridge and a little scoot through an awkward rocky section, Spring Run opened up into a glorious soft and wide slope offering great sport and linking back up with Mugs Alley at the bottom.
It was getting late and at this time of year the lifts close at 3:20 as it gets dark. We made for one more lap of Main Basin then Spring Run and down the Plateau to finish with a low sun picking through the clouds of an inversion.
Although weather wise it hadn’t looked promising, today turned out to be the best so far.
Hogmanay and New Year’s Day look set to bring blizzard conditions. I hope they do, and leave lots of snow in the process. We certainly need it. There looks like a weather window on Saturday for my next slide before the end of the festive break. We’ll have to wait and see.