Thursday 24th January 2013
Quite a change in the weather recently – lots of heavy snowfalls, which means more opportunities for skiing at last! Several members had been hoping to get up to Glenshee all week, but the road up from the Spittal had never opened due to ongoing snowdrifts. The plan was to go on the Wednesday, as the road was “expected to open” but it never did! So, a few of us who could go on Thursday decided to try again. When we left Dundee around 8:30am the road was still closed – despite being “expected to open first thing”… and when we passed through Blairgowrie the signs still said it was closed, but thankfully by the time we got to the Spittal is had finally opened 🙂
The snow was fantastic – cold fresh dry powder of alpine quality, with no icy, crusty or sticky patches to be found anywhere. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite upto the same standard, none of the sunshine that was forecast and a bit of freezing fog around 🙁 It did try and brighten up briefly once or twice, with Hazel & Jon getting to enjoy a nice powder descent off the back of Meall Odhar (southern slopes). Most of the time was spent on the pistes though, the best of which were the west facing ones (east facing were stripped, so no access to Glas Maol and not so good on the Cairnwell side, though the Tiger was open). The highlight was the entire western side of Meall Odhar being covered with powder, providing loads of lift accessed off piste fun.
On the hill: Jon & Hazel, Chris & Jo, Dave & Jen and one or two others. Not bad for a weekday!
