Glencoe

Moon over Black Mount

Day 11 of Scottish Season 15/16. I’d been watching the Winterhighland website all week and the promise of sunshine held true. I got an early start leaving from Cardross and was in the car park for 8:30. Some of the sights on the road up were spectacular, with a large moon hovering above the Black Mount in the morning sky.
Even from the road I was able to see that they had managed to groom many of the runs on the mountain, this is quite unusual for Glencoe, as they tend to leave the terrain au naturel.

There was not a cloud in the sky and barely noticeable easterly winds meant it was a bit chilly, maybe around -3.

The Spring run and even Main Basin were both groomed and you could easily imagine yourself at the top of a French piste in the Alps.

East Ridge and Flypaper are still closed and so was the Cliffhanger chairlift. Although this was finally up and running by the end of the day.

The wind lip in Main Basin was great as I attempted some 180s. My backside 180s not a successful as my frontside 180s.

Happy Valley combined with The Wall was a great long run, but the t-bar queue was a bit of a nightmare.

Spring Run
Grooooomer!

 

I made the most of my time on the hill as I needed to get up the road for a pub quiz in the evening.

Once again, the majority of the hill was covered. Etive Glades is scoured, so is Rannoch Glades, middle upper mountain and the last few hundred meters above the car park was ‘combat skiing’.

So after a great early part of the day I left. Trying to get out of the full carpark proved interesting as visitors attempted to get up the access road while we were trying to get out.

eas/nasa
It looks like a great day to be climbing a Scottish Munro today! Tim Peake, ESA/NASA