Take a proper from the highest raise at Glencoe Mountain Resort and you’ll shortly be confronted with one of many biggest views in Scottish snowboarding. The rugged bulk of Buachaille Etive Mòr, typically referred to as Scotland’s most stunning mountain, overlooks the deep valley of Glencoe, simply across the nook from the “007 Skyfall highway”. The panorama then leads previous the Satan’s Staircase, on the West Highland Means strolling route, and spherical to Rannoch Moor, certainly one of Europe’s nice wildernesses, a sprawling peat moor dotted with lochans and ringed by rolling hills.
It is a glen hailed in guidebooks – and one which snowboarders and skiers within the UK can entry within the atmospheric glimmer of winter at a fraction of what they’d pay for a visit to the Alps or North America (weekday raise cross £30, £35 weekends), making it a finances choice – with a a lot decrease carbon footprint, too.
Admittedly, the snow circumstances are unpredictable, and earlier than attending to these excellent views on the high of Glencoe final season, I did must take a good few gusts of hail to the face. However that is Scotland, and the climate is as a lot part of the expertise because the Highland views, the native humour, the cosy pubs and the whisky stops.
I’d determined to drive as much as Glencoe for the day from Edinburgh after a pal despatched a flurry of envy-inducing pictures the weekend earlier than, exhibiting bluebird circumstances and ideal snow. Lowlands turned to Highlands after I handed Loch Lomond – and the snow circumstances had fortunately held, too. I spent the day on rugged purple and mellow blue runs with views so stunning I might virtually hear the Go to Scotland violins. And the odd spot of icy rain? Nicely, it was simply one other reminder {that a} scorching chocolate cease is rarely a foul thought.
To complain concerning the unpredictable circumstances of Scotland in winter is to overlook the fantastic thing about the mountains themselves
“The recommendation we at all times give is to come back barely later within the season,” says Andy Meldrum, managing director of Glencoe Mountain. “In December and January it may be fairly wild. By late February, the climate tends to have settled, and we normally ski proper by means of to the tip of April.”
There are 5 essential ski resorts in Scotland. The Cairngorms are house to Cairngorm Mountain, the place pistes wanting again over Loch Morlich and Caledonian forest are simply accessed from Aviemore. Then there’s Glenshee, Scotland’s largest resort, with round 40km of pistes, and the Lecht, an awesome choice for households and novices.
On the west coast, the Nevis Vary, is on Aonach Mor, a mountain neighbouring Ben Nevis and residential to Scotland’s solely ski gondola. Then there’s Glencoe, the place a brand new chairlift will virtually double capability this season, and the White Corries cafe is now up and operating after the earlier one burned down on Christmas Day 2019.
The resorts will be reached inside a two-hour drive of Aviemore, so it’s possible to base your self there and determine the place to go relying on the snow circumstances that day.
Flypaper’s 40-degree piste, the UK’s steepest in-boundary run.
Glencoe is probably essentially the most stunning. The uplift soars over frozen waterfalls, and on the opposite facet of the resort to Buachaille Etive Mòr – a jagged pyramid of a mountain, like a baby would draw – is Flypaper, the UK’s steepest in-boundary ski run, and the wonderful Spring Run purple piste.
“You typically have your individual playground,” says Meldrum. “It’s good and quiet, and we don’t piste over there, so it might really feel as when you’re snowboarding within the backcountry if you’re actually nonetheless in-bounds.”
On the way in which to the Spring Run is an indication saying “professional skiers solely”: it’s coated in stickers and seems to be being slowly blown over by many years on a mountaintop. Maybe this does put some off, as a result of the run is commonly empty, leaving loads of house to hurry down the steep, scenic slope. On Flypaper although, it’s most secure to disregard the views – since you’ll be staring down a formidable 40-degree piste. Safely navigated, each of those runs join again to the mild blue and inexperienced runs decrease within the resort, plus the primary lifts and the mountain cafe.
The place snowboarding in Scotland maybe struggles is when making an apples-and-oranges comparability between it and the mega-resorts of Europe and North America.
The brand new chairlift at Glencoe. {Photograph}: Stuart Kenny
Scott Simon, CEO of Snowsport Scotland, says: “There’s perhaps an expectation, when you’re coming from the south of England, that you just’re going to be getting a Val d’Isère or a Whistler or a Colorado expertise. And also you’re not. You’re going to get a Scottish expertise – socially, culturally, environmentally, and positively from a climate perspective.”
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Certainly, probably the most widespread items of recommendation for these heading north is to remain versatile, and ski as a part of a wider Highland vacation. Nevis Vary is simply not far away from the Ben Nevis Distillery, for instance, whereas from Aviemore, you may go to reindeer herds, stroll the Frank Bruce Sculpture Path in Glenfeshie or catch conventional music in a comfortable pub.
The Scottish climate tends to deliver out the interior thinker. Some say that to get essentially the most out of snowboarding right here, you need to be an optimist. “Have quite a few plan As, after which select the perfect one in line with the climate,” says Simon. Others say that to complain concerning the unpredictability of the circumstances in Scotland in winter is to overlook the fantastic thing about the mountains themselves. As Nan Shepherd wrote of the Cairngorms: “The mysteries are in its actions.”
There’s one mantra that each one Scottish skiers have uttered at one time or one other, although, and which Simon proffers now: “On its day, it completely stands up there with wherever on the planet.” The issue, he provides, is simply discovering that day. “You will get champagne powder, however you can even get heather and granite,” he laughs. “That’s the allure. It’s simply having the persistence, adaptability and suppleness – as a result of all of that variability comes with numerous alternative, too.”
It’s concerning the journey throughout wild landscapes, seeing wildlife as you go, and snowboarding little sections no person has skied earlier than Russell Murray, Aviemore native
An rising variety of skiers would say the perfect of these alternatives lie off-piste. The previous few years have seen an enormous growth in ski touring in Scotland, a self-discipline which entails strolling up the mountain on skis with particular bindings and “skins” – strips that enable your skis to grip whereas going uphill. On the high, you are taking the skins off, clip again in and descend. Incomes your turns will be numerous work, nevertheless it additionally means your route is just not determined by the place the lifts run. You possibly can go wherever the snow is.
Snowboarding within the Cairngorms
“It makes you respect the lifts much more,” says Russell Murray, an Aviemore native who works for lively journey operator Wilderness Scotland, and who discovered a brand new love for ski touring throughout the pandemic. “Nevertheless it’s not all concerning the downhill. It’s concerning the journey throughout wild landscapes, seeing wildlife as you go, and snowboarding sections no person has skied earlier than.”
Pictures of Scottish touring lately – puffy powder, blanket-white mountain ranges or strains of snow snaking down in any other case grassy Highland views – ooze journey, and have confirmed to many what long-time skiers in Scotland already knew – that this stays a rustic severely underrated when it comes to snowboarding terrain, even when some will blindly dismiss it.
The snowboarding in Scotland is pretty much as good as wherever on the planet. And when the climate does intervene? Nicely, the whisky distilleries are by no means cosier than on a moist and wild winter day.