….I wouldn’t bother, unless you have your own skis, already have a lift pass, and don’t mind queues everywhere.

We went to Glenshee today. Snow conditions were pretty good and the bad weather doesn’t bother me, but by the time we arrived, queued for ski hire, queued for a lift pass, went to the first poma, stood in a queue, watched it break down, stood in the queue for while they tried to fix it, were told it was going to be out for ages, joined a huge queue for the chair, stood there for 15 minutes hardly moving, watched the poma come back on, went and queued there again and finally got onto our first run it was a good two and a half hours from arriving at the car park.

Rest of the day wasn’t much better. The folk running it are lying through their teeth about the number of tows and chairs actually on. It’s nothing like what the website says. I reckon the queue to ski time ratio was about 15 to 1.

No wonder folk prefer skiing abroad. I know that the infrastructure is old, and that weather conditions are unreliable (I’ve skied in Scotland off and on for over 20 years), but today was just a joke.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Rant over. I had to get that off my chest, and I’m not registered with any ski forums.

That post is just a big bluff to put folk off so you’ll have the slopes to yourself at the weekend…

Did you not go over to Glas Maol? It’s always relatively quiet over the back.

The queues aren’t always that bad…

And the Glas Maol can be quiet as Smee says…

But yeah, these pics are from 19th March 2006.

This weekend is likely to be mega-busy!

I wish it was a bluff!

I wanted to go over to Glas Maol, but I had Mrs Kenny with me who isn’t a hugely adventurous skier (to put it mildly) and as I’m trying to talk her into a trip abroad I decided not to push my luck. We stayed on Sunnyside and the other side of the hill.

The Meall Odhar poma wasn’t running anyway which meant huge queues were building up there too.

Seen plenty cars heading up the A1 today with Ski racks on.

Well, Cairngorm is no better. The other w/e the missus went up, huge queues at the ticket office – only 2 staff on in ticket office and sharing 1 switch/visa thingy!!!
This w/e will be even worse, just dinnea bother coming up, especially Sunday….

Well yeah, the greens and easy blues on Sunnyside are always going to be the busiest bits at Glenshee.

If you can’t persuade her to go over the top to Glas Maol and Coire Fionn then you need to at least head up to Butcharts to stand any chance of getting away from the crowds.

Butcharts wasn’t running either, and looking over to that side (from halfway down Sunnyside) I could see huge queues over there too.

Blimey!

There are three tows that go up there (Butcharts Poma, Butcharts T-bar and Carn Aosda T-bar) – they usually manage to get 2 out of the 3 running!

What about going up the Cairnwell Chair and then coming down the reds?
Or would that be too adventurous for her?

Take her to the top of the Tiger, shove her in the back and shout “SKI”….

That has been proven to work in the past. 😀

Well there might have been something going up Butcharts (I was looking from a long way away), but one at most, and the queues were huge. Cairnwell chair wasn’t on either, despite what the website said.

Smee….that would have been so, so tempting, but 5 seconds of pleasure for a lifetime of misery is an even worse ratio than the Glenshee ski/queue one mate!!

Cairnwell chair wasn’t on either

Bloody hell. That does sound like a bit of a clusterf**k all round.

Still I stand by my point: if you go there on one of the busiest days of the year then you are going to find it really really busy unless you can get away from the beginners slopes.

So I’d temper your advice: don’t go if you need to hire gear (cos there will be none left) or if your are not prepared to get there early or if you are not confident enough to get away from the car park runs.

Unfortunately, this always happens in Scotland when there’s snow in the rest of the country. If there’s 2cm of snow in Glasgow/Edinburgh, everyone goes skiing, even though there may only be the same 2cm in the mountains. If there’s 3ft of snow in the ski resorts, but it’s raining in Glasgow/Edinburgh, you’ll have the mountain to yourself.

Graham S, I wasn’t complaining about the crowds; I knew it would be busy. I was complaining mainly about being lied to as regards what lifts would be open. At least they could be honest and say “Well we’ll try to get them running but most of them are old and unreliable”.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see the Scottish ski industry booming with lots of cold winters, but how many folk went there today and said “Never again”?

Glenshee has always used a little bit of artistic licence when describing snow conditions and what lifts are open though.

Just to drop back in… Nevis Range is usually the best for avoiding queues, has the most reliable lift system and has some of the best off-piste terrain anywhere.

Seriously, I’ve been snowboarding 10 years, am on my 4th season in proper mountains, done well over 400 days on a board and I would still happily count 2-3 days at Nevis (and Glencoe) among my best days ever.

Stevo, I might give Nevis a try. If the snow lasts I might take a day off midweek. Cheers.

sorry kenny, reading that back it sounds like I’m having a go and I didn’t mean to.

I agree things could be a lot better at the Scottish resorts but most of them have been very close to bankrupt over the past few years, with some only surviving through rescue packages so it’s not all that surprising that they are lacking in investment.

Ive just spent 10 mins sifting thru stuff to find out who this aviemoron is! thought it was still the old name you had.
The 32 mile drive home from Avie to Inv was averaging 40mph earlier.the temps dropping will turn the A9 into death cookie central tomorrow morning.its going to be dodgy. we need to get the skis and snowboards out to do some late night 20 mile stints behind yer 4x4transportawagon with a rope and bungee setup lol. as for the mountain, i dont think they will clear it for an early opening. got to face it, after the snowfall today and tonight and the folk driving up in the morning, its going to be a nightmare.i drove to glenmore at lunchtime and the trees had a fair dump of snow waiting to drop off them. sunday onwards could have amazing powder in places.

Was there yesterday, too. Its Scotland ffs, not the Alps. Weather was atrocious, snow was mostly pretty good, I enjoyed just getting on skis. Shame Glas Maol and The Tigrrrrrrrrrrrr weren’t open, but for 2 minutes extra hiking at the top of one lift we found an empty piste a couple of feet deep in powder most of the way down. Huzzah, great day (relative to Scottish skiing expectations).

Know what you mean Kennyp.

Have had many a good day skiing in Scotland, had some of the best days skiing last year in Glen Coe at Easter with fresh snow mid week, skiied off piste all day in fresh snow with no queues in brilliant sunshine and great craic from lifties. This was mid week. 🙂

Another memorable day was similar to yours, first decent snow of the season a few years ago and went up on a saturday, got there at 0830, queued until 1pm for skis and a pass, by which time we only had to get a half day pass, we didnt get skiing until 130pm!! 🙁

Moral of story is go midweek when the snow comes and after a few days of skiing have been had and people have gotten it out of their system.

Just back from an attempt at Glenshee today…. Left ALnwick at 5.30 this morn got to Blairgowrire sat waiting on A93 opening at Blairgowrie – got to bridge of cally at 11 ish for the guys i was with to get their hire gear which they had booked (they were all sold out by then). Then sat in a 4 mile que before Spittal of Glenshee so turned round and headed home – called in at Hillend and had a play for 3 hrs which was better than nothing as it was mostly snow not dry slope.

Quick follow up to this. Went hillwalking instead today. Glorious day on Beinn Mhanach with loads of snow. We hardly saw another soul and had a great descent sliding down half the mountain on our bums, trying (okay, failing) to steer with ice axes.

Graham S, don’t worry, I know you weren’t having a go.

And to the folk who think I was having a go at Scotland’s ski industry, well I wasn’t really. All I wanted was a bit of honesty as regards what runs were open.

I was snowboarding yesterday at Nevis. The queues weren’t too bad and managed to hire a board ok. The snow was initially was great then started to ice up later on in the day which added to the fun!