It's a rare event when you can plan a ski trip a week in advance when Scotland is the destination. It's even rarer when snow covers the whole mountain, the roads are still open and the lifts are all running.
It was a bit dicey on the road up from Edinburgh on the 27th. We hit the road round about 4.30am with the snow still falling. By Perth it was like a scene out of 'The Day After Tomorrow'. The snow was tumbling - one narrow lane open on the motorway and that was coated with an inch of ice and topped with 2 inches of fresh snow. We passed 2 jacknifed lorries whilst we followed the pioneering trail cut by a 4by4 just ahead of us. No other vehicles were on the road. It was touch and go but eventually it cleared up just south of Dalwhinnie. We later heard the police closed the road - just after we got through!
Arriving at Aviemore - the town was like a winter wonderland. Our accommodation was still closed so we changed in the car and headed for the mountain.
The snow was incredible - as good as I've ever had in the Alps. Light, fluffy and deep! The visibility was rotten though. Still a good day despite all of feeling like we'd forgotten how to ski.Good night out in town - great food at the hotel next to the Bunkhouse (veal stew and chocolate brownies for pud served by a saucy Polish girl) and a few pints.
Early start the next day and the skies were crystal clear. Loads more people queueing for the first lift however. Up on the mountain the conditions were perfect - could not be bettered. A great days skiing with queues and broken lifts being the only issue. Anyway, more of this in Scotland would be great!
On the drive back to Edinburgh temperatures plummeted to -16.5C just north of Dalwhinnie. We, and every car driver, had to pull over and scrape the ice off the windscreen (inside and out) every 30 minutes!
No comments:
Post a Comment