Scottish-Irish Skier

Folk's hoose in Carrbridge. Bennachie has had it's winter coat back past day or so. Roll on spring. Please.

Few snaps and a vid of Les Menuires this week. All in all, good conditions with wee top ups of fresh. Should be two crackin bluebird days in the bag (next is the morn). Past the half way mark time wise, and well that makes you think about heading hame to Scotland. Not sad though, as that's where the heart is... Vid is of Mont Blanc, then swinging round to Val Thorens. Taken from the top of Pointe de la Masse. Fuel stops are good (as per photo), but no mac and cheese or Scotch pie like you get at Scottish ski centres sadly! 20240304_105959.mp4

It's weird. At the new hoose, I've had 3 cold spells that stuck in the mind, all of which turned things variably white and frosty oot. One was pretty full on, sustained, and with drifts well over a metre on my road. This is way better that some winters I've experienced, yet I feel it's been a poor winter, and skiing conditions in Scotland have been crap to non-existent. Meanwhile, over in Norway, they've had more snow than they know what to do with, including in areas not so used to it. Norwegian Glacier Resort Reports Lifts Buried by 10m (33’+) Of Snow - The Whiteroom WWW.SNOW-FORECAST.COM A glacier ski area which usually opens in spring and summer each year has reported it has had to play “find the ski lift” after winter snowfall buried parts of its drag lift... The Alps started out really well pre-Christmas, but then had a hard time with resorts below 1600 m suffering until the past week or so, while the Pyrenees had a really hard time. Now both are getting more seasonal weather with snowfall. As for me, I am off to Les Menuires in the 3 valleys tomorrow. OMG this is costing an arm and a leg now, but it's my first proper holiday in a year. Mrs SS and Mini Miss SS enjoyed trips to France a couple of times to stay with the French family while I did DIY on the new hoose. Cannae wait. Forecast is for 28 cm of fresh at resort level (1850 m) over Sat/Sun, topping up what is a good base for the time of year. Then bluebird days. Sweet. I read all these stories of 'alps screwed for skiing', but conditions now are better than trips I had many years ago. Schladming, Austria 1988(?) with high School and really warm weather meant no option but op to the Dachstein Glacier. That was in January! And it wasn't like cold but lack of snow, because I remember thin cover melting over the week drastically, forcing a trip to the glacier at the end. Then Badgastien 1994(?), again with the school, wasn't great. No skiing to valley level and really thin cover lower down. January again. And early march trips to the Tarentaise Valley resorts in the 00's were often characterised by zero snow below 1600 m or so, and bartlett high sunshine. My memory of stupid bumper snaw was actually recent in 2016 early march in La Plagne. Van burying levels, which i posted pics of here. My memories of the highlands are similar. While I enjoyed the heydays of the 80's, I do remember mostly heather, with snaw between the fences, and that's what you see if you look up old pics / vids. It was not some white winter wonderland. Also that the 1990's saw both a decline in skiers, but also snaw reliability. A very complex picture. Also an irony that if global warming causes Scottish cooling, folk from the Alps may come here to ski. As for now, just one sleep to go!

Well, I went tae the garage (which doubles as a gym and ski service centre), stuck some tunes on, started servicing a pair of skis, and when I emerged after, there was new dusting ae snaw. Omen or jinx? EDIT. I'll take any snaw, but the main thing would be at least the ski centres get some. They got torched recently. Even the Alps below 1500 m is looking bad. Thankfully the forecast is better going forward.

Decent dusting of snaw here. Happily sticking.

Game on.

Will just place this here. We're heading for our second cold snap of the season with snow on the way NEWS.STV.TV The real nosedive will come on Tuesday and into Wednesday with temperatures going from around 12C to 5C.

First signs filtering through.

Also beginning to look rather tasty. #jinxingit

Kirkcaldy Weather Aye, looking mair like it.

Starting to look a bit more lively into February. Windy again here.

Felt I needed to report some quite unusual weather here. It's not raining, it's not snowing, and it's not blawin a hoolie. Just calm and average for January.

Blawin a hoolie again. Not really anything else tae say.

Totally. After Friday's hardpack / ice adventures at Glenshee on a set of (now retired from alpine duty) all mountain skis rattling away, I just ordered some second hand fully on-piste slalom skis off ebay for a bargain price. Shorter and sharp as f*k Scottish rock hoppers they will be. So that's me better armed with my quiver. Either cut into the ice, or ride over the slush bumps as per standard Scottish conditions. Rare as hell lovely crisp corduroy and either set will do.

Next one incoming. EDIT. Jeezo.

Snaw back oan at the ski centres. They didn't lose that much cover with the blowtorch. General pattern is trending to caulder too.

Wee bro's hoose near Penicuik. EDIT. Road near him / somewhere in Penicuik. He says that bizarrely, the wind took the coping stones off, but left the bins standing!

Holy guacamole. Totally slept through that. Hoose still standing. Power never went aff either so generator purchase worked!

Aye, really sounding nasty here now too.

Mrs SIS was mocking me earlier for getting the generator all primed and ready to go, saying 'You just really want a power cut so you can play with your new toy!'. She may yet be laughing on the other side of her face from posts coming in! EDIT Bennachie rain shield clearly has lost power! Pishin doon the noo.

Weird to look at the radar with all that heavy rain. We've not had anything heavy at all, just light on and off. Seems to be some sort of rain shield operating on Bennachie for the moment. Starting tae blaw a hoolie that's fir sure.

Well the new hoose came with the meter box outside with a handy switch for swapping between mains and a generator. I therefore felt it necessary to buy a generator to go on the end of that 16 Amp plug just begging to be plugged into one. It's great, as just a case of switching over and everything in the house will come on, including the oil central heating boiler. This 3 kw bad boy now lives in a wee robotic lawnmower garage next to the meter box. My purchase will either come in useful at some point, or the jinx effect means we will never, ever experience a power cut.

Well, I've battened down the hatches and filled the generator up with petrol. Already pretty breezy oot!

Congratulations ma man and cherish every single minute. Before you know it, 16 years will have passed!