Glencoe Thursday 27th December 2012

First day of the season. Manage to get up while on Christmas break which is always good.
Still a ways to go before full coverage is achieved. However the basins are filling in. Lots of wins either side of this day. Proving quite gardens in these stormy conditions. Air temperature is quite warm also. Snow itself was good. Mostly spent time in main basin by took a trip across the top of Rannoch glades and down Spring run. Hope the storms that follow don't destroy what's there. They may bring more snow for new year. Fingers crossed. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day look promising.
Conditions for Thursday were not too cold. Some icy scrapes, but most snow in the right place was good.

Black Mount August 2012

Midges abound and tics sucked my blood, two Munros climbed.

July Arran Cycle

Arran from Michael MacDonald on Vimeo.

Two days around Arran

To blog or not to blog

Hmmm?

Contour HD footage from Chamonix Trip in February

I didn't use my ContourHD nearly enough and only took POV stuff. Will definitely make more use of it in the future. Presuming there is one...

Glencoe 21st April 2012

Well, over the last week I've been watching the weather from my office with interest. The webcams have been teasing me with late season snow reviving Glencoe Mountain Resort.
They opened midweek but were dissappointed by the numbers showing up.
Saturday looked promising. Most of the drive up was sunny but as usual, on arrival I saw the cloud was sitting on the top of the mountain.
The top t-bar was running. However the uptrack was super gnarly. Even came off once. It was littered with base grinding rocks and occasionally lifted you by the crotch over some of the many dips.
Mustn't complain though. This is the first chance to slide since Chamonix in February. No Scottish snow the whole of March!
Despite visibility being poor the snow was actually pretty good. Etive Glades, top of Happy Valley was fun with soft buttery spring snow. The rocks were taking their toll and a few runs later I was finding my heelside turns were dragging. If I plan to go up tomorrow I'll need to get the sandpaper and p-tex out.
Wasn't cold and wind was minimal. I swear I saw midges on the slopes!

Going to sleep on it and maybe head up again tomorrow. Beggars can't be choosers.

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