•Glencoe Sledge Park

•England Club Fields

•Mountain Weather

•Half Term Begins

•Mountain Forecast Discussion

•Webcams and Weather Stations

A Met Office Yellow Warning for rain is in place Tuesday and Wednesday for a swath of the East / SE Highlands, potentially significant new snow on highest terrain, but uncertain how quickly snow level will lower Tuesday through Wednesday. Nevis Range is closed for snowsports till Thursday.

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

Colder air is once again established across Highland mountains, with the freezing level now below the lower slopes and set to lower further during Thursday. This means the old snowpack is refrozen and hard packed, this will be intermixed with areas of wind blown fresh on Thursday. Best ridining likely to be on recently groomed stuff early doors, but as a ridge builds in during Friday much improved visibility should allow some exploring to find the fresh!

Strong winds limited uplift to mid mountain on CairnGorm on Wednesday and is likely to do so again on Thursday, and may affect Nevis also, where the gondola was closed Tue and Wed.

Overnight snow showers will give a covering on East Coast access roads, but at update the A93 Cairnwell Pass and A939 Lecht Pass were open.

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.

Further digging out and storm recovery work is required to get uplift running on Meall Odhar and push up the other side of the middle valley and onwards to Coire Fionn, but with the recent sustained drifting having now stopped, machines are making progress on getting uplift going on Meall Odhar. Coire Fionn should follow on quite quickly once uplift opens on Meall Odhar, but there is a good deal more storm recovery work required on the Glas Maol Poma, it will be longer.!

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.

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!

Unfortunately the Lecht remained well and truly in the gloom on Sunday, the very dreich day being bad news for the main side of the ski area where cover was thinner than on the Buzzard side. While 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. However the Buzzard side has an extensive wide cover of spring snow and the nursery slopes by the magic carpets retain good cover.

Nevis Range opened the Alpha Button and the Goose T-bar on Sunday and enjoyed reasonable visibility this weekend vs everywhere else! Yorkies is in good shape off Alpha and the Home Run / Rabbit Run provide a return from the Goose to outside the Top Station.

:: 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

There had been some new snow last week at both Weardale and Yad Moss, but it was not sufficient to open and the freezing level went back above the tops again on Saturday.

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 -2.0°c. At the Top of the Access (671m) it was -0.7°c. At Base level (366m) it was +1.3°c with a SE breeze at 3 gusting 11mph.

The SAIS summit AWS on Aonach Mor was reporting -3.0°c. The Met Office station was reporting a variable wind at 12 gusting 34mph. At the CIC Hut (680m) it was +0.5°c. At Tulloch Station (237m) the temperature was +3.0°c.

In the East the Met Office Summit AWS on CairnGorm reported -4.9°c, while the Heriot Watt AWS reported a ESE wind at a mean of 35 gusting 49mph. At Aviemore the temperature at 6pm was +2.0°c.

The Met Office Cairnwell AWS reported -2.8°c with an Easterly at 34 gusting 55mph.

:: Half Term Begins

Some locations are now on half term this week, from Friday several Scottish councils with long weekends rather than a full week will be on break, so Friday with a good forecast is likely to be busy for a week day.

Next week all areas will be busier than usual as it is also the peak week for English Half Term.

All areas will be busier on the equipment hire front. If you have your own equipment, bring it is the best advice that can be given! Safely fitting equipment takes time. If you need to hire and hiring off-site on route to the mountain can work for you, that means you are ready to go when you hit the mountain.

If you need to hire on the mountain, book equipment hire in advance, that allows equipment to be pre-setup, significantly speeding up the process in the morning.

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

Munro Level temperature will start around -3°c and lower -4°c, possibly -5°c towards the North by dusk on Thursday. Strong ENE wind will give a substantial windchill on top of the air temperature, around 30 gusting 40 to 50mph first thing, but should ease to around 20 to 25mph by early afternoon, slightly gustier around continuing snow showers in the North and East Cairngorms, while in the West snow showers now look likely to fizzle out by Thursday afternoon.

Areas of convective snowfall expected to move in from the Moray Firth in the evening, whether wind is NE or more Northerly at that point will affect where sees the most shore cells. In 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!

A transient ridge of high pressure will build from the west on Friday, a dry and increasingly bright day in the West, while snow showers will fade in the East and sunny spells 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 Highland mountains, with widespread sunshine and a dry day, sun may be prolonged or unbroken in the West, some patchy cloud may come into parts of the Cairngorms depending on exact direction of the breeze. Very cold with -5 to -7°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.

Whether the ridge holds for Sunday is currently uncertain, there is a risk of wind speeds ramping up on Saturday evening or overnight into Sunday morning, however the detail is uncertain, Severe Gale SE winds will develop, but when they arrive is not nailed on. This could hold off longer and give an ok morning at least on Sunday, or come through quicker and wind speeds ramp up much quicker on Saturday evening and actually drop away quickly again during Sunday morning.

The uncertainty for Sunday, coupled with a bright forecast for Saturday after weeks of poor visibility mean Saturday is likely to be busy!

:: 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.