DAY 5 OF THE SCOTTISH SEASON 16/17
After Saturday’s white out I drove into Fort William to recover and get a bite to eat, while writing up Saturday’s blog post, however I was met with server issues and an unresponsive host (Easily Domains, avoids them!). I jumped about from the Grog and Gruel (great wifi and quesadillas) to Macdonalds then the train station (very fast wifi). None of this helped, so I returned back through Glencoe to car camp as Sunday promised to be fair.
On the drive from Fort William, just before Corran Ferry I almost ran over a Pine Marten. I saw the eyes reflecting back from the drainage ditch, before the beast ran out in front of the car. Luckily I wasn’t going too fast. This was the first time I caught a glimpse of this large weasel type animal. Further down the road it was much larger fauna I had to be aware of as hoards of red deer lined the roadside as I left the Glencoe valley.
It was a chilly night, but the moon on the Buachaille looked awesome, the snow atop the mountain glowed under illuminated clouds. It made for a fantastic view to fall asleep to, not to mention wake up to.
Despite being close to the ski resort, I was still behind most people when it came to getting up the access lift. Too much time trying to sort out the damned website.
Once I was on the chairlift though, I knew I was in for a good day. I had attempted to repair my board the best I could from the damage it received the day before, but the icy uptrack on the Plateau only compounded the terrible handling of my board. I then got on the Cliffhanger and top T-bar before I could look down on the Main Basin in all its glory. Blue skies, russet moorland and white capped hills. Its good to have you back winter!
The edge of Rannoch Glades had some stashes of powder which I greedily consumed, suffering the odd nibble from those sharks once again. Main Basin, although not as full of snow as it usually is offered lots of fun little hits, jumps and berms on the way down. Happy Valley was in top form and many folk were taking high speed turns down there until lower down where you had to negotiate the terrain with a little more thought.
I tried out The Wall, which proved to be great fun. Not too tricky as long as you kept looking as far ahead as possible. I even gave Rankin’s Return a go, but due to the damage my board had sustained any shallow gradient, low speed run was proving difficult.
It was great to see lots of people out on the hill enjoying the snow and sun. Bumping into more familiar faces. Robbie if you read this, I will do the East Ridge with you, but I’m glad I left early when I did. The mist was coming in and I wanted to get home in good time. I had a tyre blow out on me on my return home, just before Luss. So glad that didn’t happen on the way there though, or worse, at night on those deer infested roads.
We’re expecting more snow this week, so maybe some of those nasty sharks will disappear. Fingers crossed for low temperatures and precipitation.
