Woke up this morning after a long broke-in-January thing to do (watching telly all night) - complete with eye and brain ache... took a look at the ski conditions on winterhighland.com and made a snap decision to get up to Glencoe. The drive along the M9 to Stirling was inspiring - with sun shining off the snow on the Ochills, Ben Ledi, Vorlich etc. Of course, the weather had turned by the time I'd back-fired and stuttered myself to Crianlairich - and all the usual sights like Ben More, Ben Lui and Ben Dorain were lost in the cloud. Half of Scotland it seemed had been better organised tham me and got their arses up to Glencoe in good time - the carpark which usually has tumbleweed and ptarmigan ghosts caressing its dusty wastes was jam packed - so that every passing place along the access road was full too. Road and car park rage led to lift queue rage - I dont think I've ever seen so many folk in a Scottish ski centre - it was like Easter in Norway and French half term combined - and stuffed into Glencoe's creaking centre. Still - it's a thousand times better than watching telly all day, hoovering or doing the self assesmnet tax form. The turns all came back - which felt ace - despite the blizzard and zero visibility. I'd only managed 3 short runs on the middle section - each with about a 20 minute wait at the t bar or the rickety old one man lift - I was witness to the day's bizzare happening when some boarder got hung up by his rucksack - they stopped the lift, leaving him hanging for a while before he unclipped the sack and got down by standing on his mates shoulders...that old chair caught me out once when I fell onto the emergency stop button - in front of an impatient lift queue of short tempered Weegies - the hung up boarder escaped lightly with a cheesy grin!
The last hour was ace - the conditions improved - you could SEE! It was the usual inspiring end of day trip - got down from the top the centre to the car park with two wipe outs - one a wendy version was just me being crap - the second was ace - did the Haggis Trap jump at full speed and landed on my arse - which is an improvement on last time I went to Glencoe and wimped out.
So the winter has arrived... hope to get back up to the snow again as soon as possible. I spent the journey home backfiring and stuttering and dreaming of fresh new trips - hopefully some proper backcountry and not piste posing!
