February 06, 2006
Olympics Snowboarding Events
Just FYI: I made a list of the Turin Winter Olympic snowboarding events, dates and times and posted it over at Soul Fibre. The first event is the Men's half pipe on the 12th.
March 07, 2005
Saturday on Cairngorm Mountain
The snow was the best I've experienced in Scotland for years, unfortunately though the visibility for the top third of the hill or so was pants. Not too windy though and not as busy as I thought it might be. Lots of fun anyway, lots of muscle pain also for the last couple of days. I need to get back to the gym...
I'm still trying to build up speed on the board, which wasn't helped by not being able to see anything in front of me. Towards the end of the day I was again pretty confident with the whole snowboarding gig, certainly much more so than the post Christmas Lecht trip which was marked by frustration more than anything. This time I actually enjoyed the boarding so that probably says something.
What else can I tell you? I forgot my jacket (which I acknowledge was pretty dumb) but was able to hire one for six quid fifty. That unfortunately involved a good bit of queueing however at the start and end of the day. Also, the bar at the top only charged £2.40 for a pint of Stella Artois, a reasonable price indeed given the lack of competition up there. They also sell haggis flavoured crisps, but they don't taste of haggis. The smoked salmon flavoured crisps taste of smoky bacon.
February 24, 2005
Snow Conditions...
This all looks pretty tempting...
| Runs | Roads | |
|---|---|---|
| Nevis Range | Runs are generally soft snow on an icy base. Summit has nice skiing. Goose Gully has been open for experts only and will be re-assessed in the morning; other runs nice skiing were groomed. Most middle runs are thin or narrow in places with good areas of soft snow & some icy patches. Rob Roy, Trainer tow area and artificial slope with snow for lower abilities. Plenty of areas for sledging. | Clear |
| Glencoe | Open Thursday and through the weekend (inc monday) Upper runs have new snow on a firm base.We are expecting clear skies and sunny periods with the occasional light snow shower.Exceptional skiing over the weekend alpine conditions are expected. | Clear |
| Glenshee | RUNS Continuing snow showers have addedanother covering of powder snow. Most of the runs now have good cover of groomed powder snow on a hard packed frozen base. Best skiing/boarding of the season so far. There are jumps and rails on Butcharts and there is ample nursery area. | Open but with a covering of snow. |
| Cairngorm Mountain | Excellent skiing/boarding available across the mountain. Improving daily. Terrain Park situated above the Ptarmigan tow. Excellent beginners area. First train up 9.00am. Last train up 3.45pm. Last train down 4.30pm. | Open - drive with care. |
| The Lecht | All runs are complete with good cover of new powder snow on a firm base. Ample nursery area.Groomed snow on all runs. | Open |
January 11, 2005
Mudboarding
On the 27th of last month I went up to the Lecht, one of Scotland's ski 'resorts', with my brother Andy and Bryan (my little sisters boyfriend). And I took a picture with my new phone which takes photos and videos - how clever is that? :-). For a supposed geek it's taken me a good while to jump onto this particular bandwagon. So, I just sent the picture through to myself and I'm surprised by the quality of it, it is actually not too bad at all. Or, at least it is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
The same cannot of course be said of the snow conditions at The Lecht which was, as you can see from the photo, in fact substantially mud and heather. A couple of seasons ago they put in a chairlift (the A structure bottom-left in the photo) and they have just built a nice lodge to replace the previous catering 'shed'. The photo is taken on the deck of the lodge. It was OK fun, but frustrating having last snowboarded at Lake Tahoe where it knows how to snow. Bry charged up and down the hill all day, Andy and I took it a little easier interspersing hot tea and sausage rolls with the occasional slalom through the heather.