•Glencoe Sledge Park

•England Club Fields

•Mountain Weather

•Peak Half Term Weekend

•Mountain Forecast Discussion

•Webcams and Weather Stations

A ridge of high pressure will build in from the West during today, already mostly blue sky in the West, currently some small snow showers in the vicinity of CairnGorm and the Lecht. A fine Saturday forecast, before a stormy night with further hill snow.

Been out on the slopes - please send us your photos to the email address at the foot of this page.

Online snowsports tickets for Saturday on CairnGorm are sold out.

If planning to visit Glenshee using the Ember Bus from the Dundee side, only limited seats left for Friday and this sold out for last Saturday!

Dawn broke with clearing skies in the West this morning, it is a cold one with -5°c at the Top of the Access Chair at Glencoe and -3°c at the carpark level. In the East it is -8°c at the summit of CairnGorm and just a fraction above -3°c in Aviemore. The Lecht looks to have caught a reasonable covering of new snow last night, lighter fall towards the South of the range at Glenshee.

On the roads at posting the A939 Lecht Pass snow gates were closed, but ploughs have gone through. The A93 Cairnwell Pass is open, it has been ploughed and gritted but there is slight snow in places. The West Coast access roads are clear, but beware of potential risk of ice anywhere this morning where the roads were damp last night. Check http://www.snowgatecameras.co.uk for road updates.

Light and variable wind at all levels at Glencoe this morning. In the East gusting 20mph at the Summit AWS on CairnGorm. No wind issues anticipated with uplift this morning. At Glencoe the both the Rannoch Button and Chair need quite a bit of de-icing, but once done all uplift bar the Wall T-bar is available.

Thursday Evening Update:

Finally the cloud lifted and started to break up widely during Thursday across the snowsports areas, this evening skies are clear in the West as a ridge of high pressure approaches for Friday and Saturday. In the East earlier clearing skies are giving way to snow showers coming in from the Moray Firth overnight, just how much penetration these make inland to the snowsports areas is uncertain, anything from 1 or 2cm to potentially somewhere seeing 15 to 20cm is possible if convective streamers set up!

Strong winds limited uplift again on Thursday morning on CairnGorm, but by afternoon easing of the wind allowed the Ciste Tow and West Wall Poma to come back on. With light winds due for Friday, the Daylodge and West Wall Pomas should hopefully open quickly, giving advanced riders an alternative and potentially faster route up the mountain. The M2 / Daylodge Run is the best route to the Cas Carpark.

On CairnGorm the Funicular is offering 1550ft of non-surface uplift vertical with a mix of green, blue and red terrain accessible from the train. The White Lady, East Lady and M1 RaceTrack are in great shape with spring snow for more experienced riders.

In terms of snow cover, the East has fared best recently and with the persistence of winds from the SE quadrant it is Glenshee that has seen by far the most snowfall accumulate. After what seemed like endless digging out with one step forward and two back at times, the Caenlochan Poma is ready to roll and open up the massive natural snowfields on Meall Odhar at Glenshee on Friday. The wee Beag Poma is also open to help move around the middle valley and the Meall Odhar cafe is due to also make its season debut during Friday, please note that this cafe is CASH only.

Given the snow situation, CairnGorm and Glenshee are likely to be the busiest. Patience might be a virtue, but with good visibility a bit of observation of what is happening around the mountain in terms of queues can get you a lot more riding!

Out West though the Plateau runs are mostly skiable, Glencoe is more suited to more confident intermediates and above, as by far the best riding is on the upper mountain at this time. For green run terrain, CairnGorm and Glenshee have more options with considerably deeper and wider cover given the predominance of SE winds in recent weeks. But for the more experienced, the top of the mountain at Glencoe is a whole bunch of fun with opportunities to ride stuff that is usually just boulder-fields, as thanks to those SE winds the mountain feels almost back to front!

At the Lecht the main runs are still complete and mostly full width between the fences, there are thin / worn areas with icy patches on the steeper face, particularly on the Grouse. More snow showers tonight will hopefully freshen things up further. The Buzzard side has an extensive wide cover and the nursery slopes by the magic carpets retain good cover.

Nevis Range plan to open the Alpha Button and the Goose T-bar on Friday, work to locate the Summit Button haul rope continues! Yorkies is in good shape off Alpha and the Home Run / Rabbit Run provide a return from the Goose to outside the Top Station. With a wide and deep cover of the Goose, Nevis may well be a good shout for maximising laps on Friday, despite the limited uplift.

:: Glencoe Sledge Park

The Sledge Park at the Plateau Cafe is in excellent condition! It is advisable to arrive before 2pm at the latest for sledging to get a decent amount of time on the hill. First chair up at 9am, the sledge park is always quietest before 11.30am. Last chair down scheduled for 4pm.

:: England Club Fields

Light covering of snow on wet ground at Yad Moss and Weardale at dusk. Temps set to lower overnight with further snow showers. Both will be assessed at first light. Snow is expected to fall at Allenheads, but temperature maybe too marginal for it to lie tonight as ground is wet.

For both Weardale and Allenheads, you need to join the club with a season pass, these are still available for both at this time.

Please check club access rules / availability if not a club member / pass holder.

Weardale: https: //skiweardale.com/ .
Allenheads: http://ski-allenheads.co.uk/ .
Yad Moss: https: //yadmoss.co.uk/ .
Raise: https: //www.ldscsnowski.co.uk/ .

:: Mountain Weather

At 6pm in the West at the Glencoe SSC hut (850m) the temperature was -5.1°c, no wind data - suspected anemometer icing. At the Top of the Access (671m) it was -3.6°c. At Base level (366m) it was -0.7°c with a SE breeze at 2 gusting 5mph.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -5.3°c. The Met Office station was reporting a variable wind at 7 gusting 25mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was -2.0°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +0.6°c.

In the East the Met Office Summit AWS on CairnGorm reported -7.2°c, with an Easterly wind at a mean of 4 gusting 12mph. At Aviemore the temperature at 6pm was +0.2°c.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS reported -5.5°c with an Easterly at 23 gusting 30mph.

:: Peak Half Term Weekend

While some locations have been on half term this week, the majority of English schools break up on Friday. On Friday itself 11 Scottish local authorities will either be on half term or start a long weekend, given a good forecast Friday will be busy for a weekday and overall this Saturday through and including Wednesday are likely to be the peak Half Term days.

On-Mountain equipment hire will be extremely busy from this Friday through to the end of the following weekend, do not expect to hire on-site if you have not reserved equipment in advance, as there is likely to be very limited if any equipment available for walk ups. Please note that Nevis Range has no operational equipment hire.

As always at half term, if you have your own equipment, bring it is the best advice that can be given! Safely fitting equipment takes time.

If you have not booked in advance for on site hire, consider hiring on route, then you will be ready when you get to the mountain. If you are travelling from or through Glasgow, try Ski n Board Room. For Glenshee try the Cabin Ski Hire at Bridge of Cally.

Carparks at Glenshee and CairnGorm are likely to reach capacity on peak days, on CairnGorm shuttle buses will operate from Coire na Ciste from around 9am. Please remember that there are currently no facilities at the Ciste Carpark.

With considerably more snow in the East, Glencoe is unlikely to have carpark issues over the next few days, but to keep things organised, larger 4wd vehicles please park in the top carpark above the Ticket Office. Only cars and small vans in the main carpark area. Campervans wishing to stay overnight will find the most level areas around the permitter of the overflow carpark.

:: Mountain Forecast Discussion

Much colder air became established during Thursday across the ski areas and low levels away from the coast will see a frost overnight, with wintry showers coming into the East off the Moray Firth overnight into Friday beware of possibly icy stretches on the roads early Friday. Overnight snow accumulations could be around 5cm quite widely in the East on higher ground, but these convective shower setups precipitation totals can vary quite markedly over small distances. Mesoscale models flag up the possibilities of some streamers setting up, potentially one or two spots could see 15-20cm of snow by the time the approaching ridge of high pressure kills off the remaining snow showers during Friday in the East.

A transient ridge of high pressure will build from the west on Friday, a dry and predominantly sunny day in the West, while snow showers will fade as the day goes on in the East and sunny spells increasingly develop. Freezing at all levels away from immediate coastal areas with onshore winds, around -5 lowering -6°c. Strong NNE wind will back NW and ease ahead of the approaching ridge.

Saturday will probably see the best day for some time for many Highland mountains, with extensive sunshine, perhaps unbroken in the West, some patches of clouds may come into parts of the Cairngorms depending on the exact direction of the breeze. Cold with around -5°c at Munro Level, sub zero at the surface away from the immediate coastal zone, wind light NNE in the East Highlands, becoming light and variable in the West.

Towards closing time in the West the first hint of what is in store overnight, as some high cloud might start to build in and the wind starts to freshen as it becomes South Easterly. Post dusk in the West, and a bit later into the night in the East, winds will become abruptly Severe Gale to Storm Force SE then SSE, with persistent hill snow setting in, very difficult mountain conditions will develop quickly into and persist through the night. Wind widely SE 50 gusting 70 to 80mph, but 60 gusting 90mph possible on and downslope of the Cairngorm Plateau and through the Nevis Range mountains overnight, possibly into the dawn / post dawn period.

Snowfall on Western mountains will be persistent through the dawn period, before easing as the SE wind lulls for a period, but clusters of heavy convective snow showers will come in as the wind suddenly veers Westerly. These showers will at times merge into longer spells of snow, heavy at times, with a risk of thunderstorms.

For the East Highlands the overnight snow is expected to clear mid to late morning, with that SE Gales will ease as wind veers West, mix of sunny spells and snow showers for the afternoon, but these less frequent than further West.

Sunday through the dawn period will see SE Gales will lull before the wind veers Westerly increasing again to around 25 to 30 gusting 40mph, but risk of gusts to 55mph in and around more intense convective cells. Minus 4 rising -1 or -2°c for a time, lowering -3°c at Munro Level.

Monday will be a day of blustery snow showers coming on a West to WNW wind, these more frequent in the West, around -2 to -3°c at Munro Level. Strong West wind will tend to moderate as the day goes on,

Early indications are a weak ridge of high pressure wills settle things down from the West for Tuesday, freezing at most levels in land, with a slight NW breeze, becoming light and variable in the West where current indications favour nearly unbroken sunshine. Some light snow showers into the Northern Cairngorms on the NW breeze.

:: Webcams and Weather Stations

Lowther Hill: Leadhills webcam is online (24/7).

GLENCOE: All mountain webcams online and the first updated images are from the Top of the Access Chair are around 7am, other cams come on by 7.30am. Sledge Park camera streams overnight. The mid mountain weather station wind direction is not working, other data valid.