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Ninjai 
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Post subject: Closest Scottish Ski Area to England?
 Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 08:42 AM
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First post: Jul 27, 2005
Total posts: 514
Status: Offline
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Due to the fact I spanked loads of money in Japan back in Feb and just bought a new house my wife is (not surprisingly) putting a stop to my snow based activities this year. So I'm thinking of heading up to Scotland at some point this season for a few nights (providing they have a half decent covering of snow). I've never been before, but which ski area has got the easiest access from England?
Cheers,
Rob  |
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“Woke up in the morning peculiar feeling. Looked up and saw egg dripping from the ceiling”
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ace_mcgraw
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Post subject: RE: Closest Scottish Ski Area to England?
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 09:26 AM
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First post: Feb 20, 2007
Total posts: 4912
Location: That snowboarding hotbed, Norfolk
Status: Offline
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Unfortunately its not totally "easy" access to any of them. It depends on where you're starting from too. If you're coming from the east coast past Newcastle then Glenshee is closest, whilst if you're heading up the west coast past Carlisle, then Glencoe is nearest.
All of them will involve driving on some dodgy roads if the weather is bad. Glenshee is at the top of a mountain pass, so if the weathers bad, its likely to get close, as is the road to the Lecht.
The roads to Glencoe and Fort William, and the one to Aviemore for the Cairngorm are bigger roads, but aren't immune to snow problems. I'd say probably on balance Glencoe is easiest to get to. Fort William and Nevis Range would prob be fine too, although you drive past Glencoe to get there (At least that's the route I would take.)
The thing with Scottish snow though is that it can depend a lot on weather and wind conditions as to which area is best. Sometimes Glencoe and Nevis Range will be pumping with snow, whilst the Lecht, Cairngorm and Glenshee will have nothing. Other times its the other way round. Sometimes its both, sometimes its neither. When there isn't much snow around, the Lecht opens soonest cos it just needs the snow to cover heather and grass, rather than big rocks like at the other resort. Its all pot luck really. Just watch the weather reports and decide on that basis. |
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Nice Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/ace_mcgraw/
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Ridermon
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 09:44 AM
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First post: Nov 03, 2010
Total posts: 283
Location: Home
Status: Offline
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| coe is the way to go!! : D, good thing about coe is that its not so far away from fort william infact coe is en route to nevis range so you can do two in one if you want to go all the way upto fort william, Infact you could do glenshee too from fort william and come back round. Personally coe ticks all the boxes but it has limited off mountain things to do at closing time due to the remoteness but in a way i kinda like that its a good relaxation from the hecticness of city life. |
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ace_mcgraw
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 09:57 AM
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First post: Feb 20, 2007
Total posts: 4912
Location: That snowboarding hotbed, Norfolk
Status: Offline
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I think you could say most of the Scottish ski hills have limited things to do off hill. Cairngorm and Nevis Range have Aviemore and Fort William respectively so they're the best for having things to do during the evening.
Glenshee has Braemar just down the road but that's not exactly a sprawling metropolis! The Lecht and Glencoe really are in the middle of nowhere, but with the new facilities the Coe sounds like its gonna be a lot easier to stay close to the slopes.
And if you were to do Glenshee in the same trip, you would actually need to go past Cairngorm and The Lecht pretty much, so you could do all of them! |
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Nice Photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/ace_mcgraw/
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passtherizla
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 11:19 AM
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First post: May 12, 2006
Total posts: 8210
Location: Birmingham
Status: Offline
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| GlenCoe is probably the easiest to get to though... its on a very main road which is kept clear. |
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Badgers.
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Ninjai
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 04:11 PM
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First post: Jul 27, 2005
Total posts: 514
Status: Offline
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Thanks for the advice peeps, I shall look into Glencoe. Fingers crossed for some half decent snow this year. I just need to try and get a mate with a 4x4 on board 
A mate of mine went to the Nevis Range a few years ago and stayed in these log cabin things. Due to th fact hes a bit of a tool he has no idea what the place was called. It was pretty basic but cheap, I quite like the idea of it.
Does anyone have idea what theyre called? I've googled it but so far haven't found them.
Cheers,
Rob |
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“Woke up in the morning peculiar feeling. Looked up and saw egg dripping from the ceiling”
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Pentasa
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 06:28 PM
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First post: Jun 25, 2011
Total posts: 149
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caff
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 06:40 PM
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First post: Dec 03, 2010
Total posts: 49
Location: Glasgow
Status: Offline
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| I think you might be talking about hobbit houses. Also I recommend Glenshee as the best resort. Glencoe is good but not all that big. |
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rob_vet69
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 25, 2011 - 09:50 PM
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First post: Jan 06, 2011
Total posts: 473
Location: Teeside
Status: Offline
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All the areas have received a nice dusting over the last 24 hours - check out the cams:
http://www.haggistrap.co.uk/weather.shtml
Hopefully if things continue, the areas will be open ofr December - am in The Granite City for a week and half over Xmas so would be nice to get a couple of days in 
In terms of answering the OP question, does depend a bit on where in England you are coming from and how you are lookingt o travel but I would agree with others in that Glencoe is generally closest. In terms of which area to go to, I would probably look at conditions a bit closer to the time and choose accordingly. I usually head for Cairngorm or Glenshee myself, but that is more to with the fact that my folks live near Aberdeen rather than anything else.
I've not ridden at Glencoe or Nevis, but I only hear good things about Glencoe - everyone talks about there being a great atmosphere there. |
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