Top Scottish Skiing (Glenshee)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Glenshee
Date:	26/02/01 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's in the UK

Disadvantages: Unreliable snow, high winds

First thing, lets be clear that the three stars awarded to Glenshee are really three and a half – A good rating if you consider I ski mostly abroad. I recently paid my first winter visit to Glenshee and in many respects was pleasantly surprised. It certainly compared very favourably with Aviemore, a place I’ve skied at a number of times, and think return trips to Glenshee are almost a certainty. It does have bad points too, but we’ll cover them in a bit.

The first thing you’ll need access to if you’re to make any sense of my tour of the slopes is a piste map. There is one at http://www.snowboardingscotland.net/res_mapglenshe e.html
As they boast proudly on the Glenshee piste map and website – 3 Valleys, 4 Mountains.

While the subject of the official website is about, it’s at www.ski-glenshee.co.uk, but it isn’t very good. The piste map is still under construction, for starters, but it does have a comprehensive pricing guide.

The second thing you’ll need, if unfamiliar with piste maps, is a key.

Black – Difficult runs
Red – Intermediate runs
Blue – Easy runs
Green – Beginners runs
Yellow – Tows

These classifications are European and are reflected in how Europeans rate their skiers as well. Brits often don’t understand their position in this hierarchy. To make the transition from beginner to being a low end intermediate skier – One who can tackle reds with a degree of competence, requires on average 6 weeks of skiing under the belt.

The top map represents the ski area to East of the A93. This road, connecting Braemar in the North, to Blairgowrie in the South bisects the area. The area to the East houses two and a half of the valleys and two of the mountains, and has the superior skiing to my mind. Farthest east, and most challenging in this area, is Coire Fionn, in the shadows of Glas Maol
and Meall Odhar. It offers what appear on the map to be a number of blue and red runs. In fact there is one nice confidence building red – No. 23 on the map, well groomed on the day - and loads of off piste. The off piste area was a mix of hard ice and thick powder that kept me entertained, but I wouldn’t like to be up there on a quiet day if the weather turned.

On the West Side of Meall Odhar are a number of short but interesting reds (19-21) and the Meall Odhar café. A basic affair, they have decent coffee and Donuts though and the toilet is accessible from the outside – very handy. Opposite these reds are some rather short and uninteresting greens to the East of the Sunnyside tows. Sunnyside runs down to the dividing A93 road and offers some nice greens and blues for beginners (11-14). On the main road are the car parking, shop, ticket office etc.

To the West of the road are the Cairnwell and Carn Aosda, two big hills with the skiing coming down the ridge that links them. On the first day here I went to the top of the Bunny Run, a horribly flat green. After trudging along BR for a bit with 40mph gusts coming off the ridge, taking lots of drifting snow with it, I found a marked red, the Slalom. Started off down the said run, but it was in appalling condition for a “piste” One side of this narrow run was thick powder, the other solid ice. Not my idea of a piste and one of things that I marked Glenshee down on. Following this I headed up No 7 in Butcharts Coire. At the top I was again alone – the tops of the pomas (Draglifts) are all unmanned – but this time in a white out.

I think that the Lift Company displays a frightening lack of responsibility on this issue, especially considering some of the pistes are also very badly marked. After a few minutes I found a couple of other people who didn’t know where they were and we picked our way down the hill together. I didn’t mention it
earlier but I’ve walked most of these ridges and peaks in autumn, so am familiar with the terrain. If this hadn’t been the case I’d have found this experience pretty terrifying. I also take issue with the term “Lift Company”. Drag Lift Company would be more appropriate, as I only saw one Chair lift actually running, and it kept breaking down.

Runs 1 (The famous “Tiger”) 2 and 8 were all closed while I was here, a pity because they looked the most interesting in the West area. After skiing down the un-pisted section of Butcharts (No.7) several times in very low visibility I began to quite enjoy it though. The West side of the road isn’t so interesting in my opinion, even though I didn’t get to try out the two bigger runs. There is another café on this hill, offering a fine selection of pies – Mince, Steak, Macaroni cheese and Cheese and Bean. The Italians just can’t compete with this variety and quality of Mountain cuisine!

The lift pass structure and pricing can all be found on the website, but an interesting option I went for was a half day pass from 8:00 – 12:30 for £13.50. Pretty good value I thought, seen as I got up to the car park for 8:00. I didn’t hire my skies from Glenshee itself. There is a place in the centre of Braemar called Victoria Hall that houses the Braemar ski school, who also do hires. Telephone bookings on 07768517829 or email skibraemar@hotmail.com. They have a selection of Head Carvers and were very friendly and helpful.

The reason I hired skis in Braemar is that I stayed there, in the Fife Arms Hotel, Tel 01339741644. This is a huge old hotel with a big lively bar offering something resembling apres-ski, and a nice lounge area. A single room with en-suite and breakfast cost me £24.50. The reason I stayed in Braemar was it’s handy for Aberdeen, being only 60 miles away, and 9 miles from the slopes. It's not exactly lively
though. The Chip Shop opens three nights a week and cooks to order - get the drift.

If you’re coming up from England, flying to Aberdeen on Easyjet then driving out to Braemar or Ballater (A bit livelier, but 24 miles from the slopes) has to be an option to consider. I couldn't find any info on buses, and was told at the Hotel that there aren't any. I'd be surprised if this was true though - but who can tell.

Well that’s about that. I was mightily impressed with the Glenshee area, my only misgivings being that it looked all too easy to get in trouble if you weren’t fairly experienced or sensible. Definitely better than Aviemore or the Lecht skiing wise, if you’re in the region in the right season I’d give it a try.

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