Niels & myself take a hike from the car park to the summit of Meall a’ Bhùiridh at Glencoe Mountain Resort to find some snow and ride on real snow on midsummer’s day.
Glasgow had been beautiful and bright but conditions deteriorated as we had come North.
There was a mountain bike race on, so the car park was really busy. Great to see for the centre.
It was a warm hike up with the threat of showers. Under two hours from car park to summit where we arrived exactly at the moment of the summer solstice. We didn’t see many skiers or snowboarders on the way up. There was the odd random hiker but the centre had opened the Cliffhanger chair so others had taken the easy option. After sandwiches for lunch we descended to the main basin from the summit to see a mass of skiers and snowboarders on the snow.
The snow was great. Well consolidated with a scalloped surface and a coating of pink algae which looks like a berry drink has spilled over the surface.
We had fun spinning down through the crowds. Some were hiking a rail, others were gaping a broken snow bridge at the narrows. We watched there for a while hoping to see someone fail to make the gap.
The sun had now broken through and there were smiles all around. I spoke with Andy the manager who said there were around eighty folk on the hill.
Niels and myself continued down and crossed over to the Wall where eventually the snow ran out, not before we took our chances over a little snow bridge. Great fun in the middle of summer in Scotland.
We had a bit of a rest at the closed up cafe and spoke to a few people on their way up. After a short hike across the plateau we came to the access lift, we took a chance and managed to blag a lift down. It made a good platform to watch the downhill bikers doing their thing in the red track.
After a quick change at the car we fired up the BBQ and threw on a couple of burgers while the sun was still out. Not a bad day after all.