Byrnesys Blabberings

A Sunday Off 

This sunday a friend of mine from church Thys Lourens who is from South Africa and working in Aberdeen as a mechanical engineer decided to skip Church and go snowboarding in Glenshee.

I had already had the adverse end of the late snow we’ve had here, it almost blocked the road to work last week, so we decided to see if we could catch some last minute snow at Glenshee, a local(ish) ski resort.

Getting back to the Slopes 

I was really keen to go this year as Rachel and I had done some snowboarding in Slovenia, but not really enough to get hugely confident, but enough to know that I really enjoyed it!

I certainly wasn’t dissapointed at Glenshee, even though the poma lifts at Glenshee are like bucking bronco’s (one even lifted me off the ground it began so violently), and there are large sections of runs which are dirt and rocks, there were also some great sections of snow higher up.

In slovenia there had been mostly hard packed man-made snow due to us arriving a little earlier than the season but some of the runs and offpiste sections at Glenshee were about 3ft of soft snow and I discovered more of why snowboarding is so fun.

What is Glenshee like? 

"Glenshee is really two separate ski areas, facing each other across a high pass. The area comprises of 5 main mountains located in 3 valleys, though the centre valley is much smaller. There is no lift or skiable link between the two sectors, but it is only a very short walk across the car park, so this is not a problem." - Ski my place Glenshee

The western sector comprises is a large bowl, formed by two mountains, the Cairnwell (933m) and Carn Aosda (917m): This is the best area for beginners and probably also for snowboarders in my opinion, the colour system doesnt seem to add up very well as some of the areas of green runs are fairly hairy whilst some blue and reds are much more manageable at slower speeds.

"The eastern sector is somewhat larger and comprises Sunnyside, Meall Odhar (922m) and Glas Moal (1068m). Sunnyside is an excellent area for nervous skiers, with a large number of confidence building blues and greens on both faces. Meall Odhar and Glas Moal have some nice reds for the more advanced skier, those on Glas Moal being particularly good. When the snow is good it is possible to ski down below the level of the Glas Moal and Corrie Fionn pomas down to the A93, but you’ll have to get a lift back to the ski station base. Sunnyside is probably one of the biggest weaknesses of the Glenshee ski area. The Snow holding on Glas Moal and Meall Odhar is generally very good, but access to these areas is dependent on surface lifts across Sunnyside. It is not uncommon for the entire sector to be closed because of insufficient snow on the Sunnyside runs and lift tracks, even though the snow beyond is good." - Ski my place Glenshee

After breaking my camera recently and leaving my blackberry in the car, I didnt get any shots so searched flickr and actually found some of my photos from when I went there with Johnny about 2 years ago.

For next time, resources for skiing/snowboarding in Scotland 

Ive made a google maps for where the Aberdeenshire area ski centres are, so I can make some valued judgements next time I see the conditions. Also the SKi Scotland website has an rss feed for all ski condition updates which I subscribed to, you can get the feed here

I don’t think there’ll be another chance to go snowboarding scotland this year, but I was wondering does anyone know a scottish ski centre that has anything other poma and T-bars running? Glenshee almost never has its chair lifts open and a chair lift would make a days snowboarding much more enjoyable, I think it must be because the chair lifts at glenshee are the oldest of the lifts and poma must be must cheaper to install.