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Over
a lot of years I have been fortunate enough to have visited around 170 resorts/Ski areas in Europe and North America and in all my travels I have never found a place with better scenery than
the area nearest my home, Glencoe.
Today it was simply stunning. Its only a small area abeit with some pretty steep and
gnarly terrain in what can only be described as one great big natural terrain park.
I left at 5.20 am for the 165 mile
drive North and it does not matter how many times I go up the A82 it is always beautiful but today as the sun came up over
the snow covered mountains it was a pure joy.
All the way
from the South end of Loch Lomond and up onto Rannoch Moor when the magnificent Buichaille Etive Mor stands guard at the head
of the infamous Glen it is scenery that never tires and no photos can ever do it justice. I was in the car park by 8.00 am
and there were only a handfull of people around.I had pre-purchased a lift ticket on-line yesterday (which saved £2) but by
the time the ticket office opened and they got the Access chair running it was nearly 9.00 am when I was up on the Plateau.
The weather was fine and sunny and the East wind was light and not nearly as cold as I had thought it would be. I made my
way over to the Cliffhanger chair and then onto the Main Basin T-bar and I was pleased to see that the snow depths were considerable
and that the snow underfoot was dry and squeaky !!. Some runs had been groomed but the off-piste was hard and wind blown in
places with pockets of fresh powder in the gullys. It soon started to soften up a bit as the sun got to work on it and for
the whole day the surface was a joy to ride on. The snow was great all over the hill and on the Plateau the beginners areas
were just about perfect and I thought that it would be difficult to get a better place to learn on such a fine day.
These
days are not that common in Scotland but
when you are on the hills on such a day you really appreciate it. All in all it was a fine day out and with the amount of
snow on the hill and with the uplift tracks well consolidated it looks like Glencoe will have a fine end to the season and
with some more snow forecast for Monday things look good
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