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Scotland's snow was skied yesterday 15 August

post #1 of 10
8/16/10 at 4:15am
Thread Starter 

 

Last winter, Cairngorm in Scotland (where I taught skiing 1974-6) saw some of the greatest deposition of snow in the mountain's recorded history. The mountain has had permanent ski lifts since 1961 but no one could recall a winter as impressive. And, still, the snow remains. So much so that Helen - 'Hilly' is her internet name - skied 9 turns on the headwall of the Coire Cas yesterday 15 August. I'd hazard a guess that she's skiing the remnants of at least 10 metres of original snow depth here. Check out the view, by the way (including Loch Morlich):

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bHA2-zh6ks

 

Report:

 

http://www.winterhighland.info/publicreports/index.php?50,2313

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post #2 of 10
8/16/10 at 9:09am

Very cool!  I had no idea Scotland had sufficient altitude to hold snow into the summer.

 

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post #3 of 10
8/16/10 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 

The snow that Helen is skiing is at about 3000ft, as far as I'm aware. That's about 1000ft above the usual winter snowline, where the base station of the lift system is located. The ski area on the mountain tops out at about 3600ft, and the summit is about 4100ft. 

 

Edit:

You can see the area of snow in the video - here's a live webcam of the mountain. It's the area of white, going about 45 degrees 'north-east' from the centre of the image:

 

http://www.cairngormmountain.com/webcam/basestationCamLarge.html


Edited by David Goldsmith - 8/16/10 at 10:12am
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post #4 of 10
8/16/10 at 4:59pm

Wow!

 

Where is the snowline usually in August?

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post #5 of 10
8/16/10 at 8:32pm

Yay for Helen!

JF

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post #6 of 10
8/16/10 at 9:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanie View Post

Wow!

 

Where is the snowline usually in August?


several hundred miles miles north..

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post #7 of 10
8/16/10 at 9:26pm

A legendary season nears its end...

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post #8 of 10
8/17/10 at 7:18pm

My only trip to Cairngorm was in 93. A group of us from Cardiff uni were competing in the British universities finals in Edinburgh and 4 of us decided to rent boards and skis and give it a whirl. We hit the mother load of storms which normally would have been a bonanza, unfortunately they decided to close down the lifts and so we were left to earn our turns. After a couple of hours we were spent and so spent the rest of the time in the boozer.

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post #9 of 10
8/17/10 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 

Well done for hiking up. Cairngorm's a crazy mountain, but last winter was so incredible. I skied it in mid-April, by which time it was past its prime, but the snow cover was still wall-to-wall. Had a fabulous couple of days. 

 

By the way, Helen's discussing her skiing (above) in this thread:

 

http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,125119,page=1

 

 

 

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post #10 of 10
8/17/10 at 9:56pm

Good for Helen!  Watching that  video certainly puts me in a happy mood.

 

I hope to visit Scotland within a few years and experience the beauty of the surroundings along with the spirit and wisdom of the people.

 

Below is a photo of my Scottish ski poles crafted by Auchterlonie (St. Andrews).   Come to think of it, I have a bunch of ski poles made in Scotland.

 

ski poles.jpg

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