Latest posts for the topic "can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?"

can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 19:06:58 GMT

Hi, me, my wife and my two girls are off to Bansko again this Christmas but I was also thinking about going to Scotland for a weekend of skiing and boarding. Can anyone recommend a decent resort and place to stay sometime during March?

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:48:36 GMT

The nearest main town is Aviemore, 12 miles from the ski area of Cairngorm. The Hilton Coylumbridge Hotel is closer, just over 8 miles from the ski area.

Glenshee has just lost it's only hotel in a fire,but it was a dump.

I live just over an hour from Glenshee, and because of the variable weather, I don't make any decisions to go until one or two days beforehand.

This was Glenshee Tiger run two seasons ago, I am stood on top of 2ft of snow:

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 22:41:17 GMT

Was the Spittal Hotel not closed anyway?

I have given up on Scotland, it takes nine hours to get their and often the roads and/or ski lifts are shut due to wind

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 23:46:53 GMT

Bonfire wrote:Was the Spittal Hotel not closed anyway?

I have given up on Scotland, it takes nine hours to get their and often the roads and/or ski lifts are shut due to wind

I agree. When I lived in Manchester, I ran a business running coach tours to Cairngorm, traveling overnight on Friday and Sunday, two days skiing. (12 hours each way)
I'm pretty sure it must have been one of our customers that started the Craghopper brand!

On the rare occasions that you have a combination of good snow and good weather, it is enjoyable.

Even though I live close to the area, at the end of last season, I made a decision to covert a one day trip to Glenshee into a half week end of season trip to Niederau...

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:44:24 GMT

12 hours from Manchester to Cairngorm! Were you using stage coaches?

When we used to go (a few after years after the internal combustion engine had been invented) the coaches in use then managed to make get us to Aviemore just after the hotel bar closed on Friday night???? The hotel the tour operator used (Red Guide Ski Tours) was a dump, the food was awful and the beer was grim. I think the beer is much improved now.

As that part of the world has a sub arctic climate, the weather is very changeable. As they used to say on Stingray "anything can happen in the next half hour" and frequently does. When the weather's good it's great. I have fantastic memories of skiing and mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands, but when conditions are bad it's desperate.

Save your money for a trip to the Alps, that's what most of the Scots do!

P.S. Red Guide also did 7 day self catering trips to the Alps for 79 quid, happy days!

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 23:01:11 GMT

It was 12 hours because the M6 was only part complete, when we were taking coaches, there was a link between the Preston and Lancaster bypasses, all 2 lane. The remainder of the routes were trunk roads.

Leaving from outside Eliis Brighams shop at 7.00pm, we would stop in Dalwhinnie or Kingussie for breakfast, before collecting hire skis from Frith Finlayson in Aviemore. Up the Loch Morloch road, where, on occasion, all 40 of the passengers would have to get off and walk up the steep road sections..... struggling to get round the Devils Elbow, (no longer exists)

So the whole journey as far as Cairngorm car park was nearer 15 hours.

Ellis Brigham had a zippy sports car and could do the journey in six and a half hours!

I agree with you, SB. It is cheaper for me to ski a couple of weeks in Austria, than on Cairngorm!

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 22:35:29 GMT

That must of been in the mid 1960s (the section joining the Preston and Lancaster bypasses opened in 1965), I was still in short trousers then!

You must have been really keen, 15 hrs in a 1960s coach must have been pretty grim. How many times a season did you manage to put on a trip?

By the time I started going up for weekends, over a decade later the roads had improved enormously.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 00:30:12 GMT

SwingBeep wrote:That must of been in the mid 1960s (the section joining the Preston and Lancaster bypasses opened in 1965), I was still in short trousers then!

You must have been really keen, 15 hrs in a 1960s coach must have been pretty grim. How many times a season did you manage to put on a trip?

By the time I started going up for weekends, over a decade later the roads had improved enormously.

No, no, I was a very young skier, SB! I too was still in shorts. :oops:
We ran the trips every weekend. I think it was 1967 start, and by the next season we were doing a coach from Leeds and one from Manchester. The Carlisle section was opened in 1970, and the first time I used it was at the end of my first Niederau season when I took my then girlfriend, (later Frau Mac), from London up to Cairngorm. (Her first time on skis)
By then, I had decided to go full time skiing, and I sold out my share in Trans Penine for GBP90. The business was later sold for GBP50,000, but in 1970, GBP90 was gold to me!

Such was the weather in Scotland, it became the norm, that after working for the ski school in Austria for the winter. I then instructed for Trans Penine on their Scottish Easter trips.

Isn't nostalgia wonderful?

Anyway, what I would call keen is walking up Cross Fell, carrying skis, and zipping down 200 yard stretches at the top.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:35:48 GMT

The original question was "Can anyone recommend a decent resort and place to stay sometime during March?" The first answer is that snow is not guaranteed during March (or any other month) so it is unwise to book a place thinking there will be. Usually there is and if you book ahead with the attitude that you'll have a good outdoors holiday even if there's no snow you'll be happy. I think it was the season before last there was no snow in March then it came again in April. Last season it was 5 metres deep on the West, less so on the East. Totally unpredictable like all British weather. There are five ski areas. Aviemore/Cairngorm has been mentioned and is the main resort town but Fort william on the West is only a few miles from the newer area of Nevis Range which has a gondola and chairlift (rather than cramped funicular and aged drag lifts) and spectacular views over the West coast. Glencoe, half an hour south, is a second option if you base yourself there. The Lecht is a second more distant option if you stay in Aviemore and have transport - it has the cheapest lift tickets and is the easiest (along with Glenshee) to get straight on the slopes from the car park. Only other point of note is that IF snow is good these centres are likely to be heaving at weekends, with long queues, but fairly empty midweek.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 00:00:41 GMT

Snowhunter gives a wider resort and conditions perspective. However, snow depth is perhaps a lesser issue. Conditions in terms of sufficient snow depth is only part of the story. The major reason for resort closures is high winds, and access roads closed due to being blocked by snow.
Road closure is not a function of the amount of snow falling, but of generally persistent wind conditions causing drifts. Piste machines are often diverted off the mountain to help clear the roads.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 13:06:26 GMT

True, but sadly too much snow with resulting drifting problems, though it still happens occasionally, maybe once every two or three seasons at each area, has been less of a cause of closure than periods with little or no snow this century. High winds stopping lifts remains fairly common though that's true - I've even been stuck at the top at Cairngorm, because it was deemed too windy to run the funicular train!

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 13:09:28 GMT

So, to summarise, no-one can recommend skiing in Scotland

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 13:57:50 GMT

Yeah I did think "I'm not really selling it..." OK I've lived here (near Inverness) 30 years and every season I get a few superb midweek, perfect blue sky, empty slope days on my local hills. Most often in April/May. When it's good it's really THE BEST IN THE WORLD. When you take in the views alone its worth it (People say, "oh the road from Vancouver to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Highway has amazing views but I did that and I thought, er, this isn't as good as the view from Glencoe or Nevis Range). Plus there's a great atmosphere, nice people. The problem is people say "I'm coming in February, how will it be?" or "I want to see in Scotland at Christmas, will there be snow?" And the short answer is - no one knows. It's the Russian Roulette of ski holidays, you may get superb conditions, you may get brown slopes, no snow. Or blizzards and gales making it unskiable. So you either have to book at short notice when you know conditions are good, or you have to come hoping you get lucky but accepting you might not and being prepared to make the best of it. Should add I am clearly a fair weather skier and should be rightly treated with contempt by hardened Scottish skiers who will brave whatever conditions are thrown at them.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 14:55:38 GMT

You are preaching to the converted here. I cut my teeth and learned to ski at the Scottish centres, being based in Edinburgh. However, having seen what the rest of the world has to offer, I now realise how primitive it is.
I also got fed up with the blatant lies in the snow reports such as 'breezy conditions'(Howling gale), 'low cloud'(10m visibility)and 'All runs complete'(with rocks, moss, heather and rivers)!! :roll:

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 16:03:27 GMT

Gotta love those creative snow reports! LOL

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 18:39:28 GMT

Even 1m visibility! Yes. I could not see past my knees!

Yes, most years, I get some bluebird days in Scotland ~ but I don't do any planning until the day before.

Re:can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?

Fri, 28 Nov 2014 22:16:00 GMT

Oh no, Dave, I never thought a man of your distinction and savoir faire would stoop to using one of the silliest ski phrases ever uttered: 'bluebird'! :(

You'll be writing 'awesome' next! -)