Category Archives: Snow Reports

If The Snow Lasts Until Next Saturday…and Snow Report

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We will have made it to 100 snow cover days in the current season! Peter Thorn was wondering if we should do something to celebrate…

Here’s Colin Millers Snow report from March 20th

True to form, the Clash is still well worth visiting. Almost all the trails are complete, with 15-50cm spring snow despite an occasional thin patch here and there. Haute Route and Timberline have huge amounts of snow. Biathlon Range and Classic Start have ample snow for training. There’s a 150m walk-in from the main entrance. Lower part of Range Way is bare, and there’s a short break on main trail at foot of the long uphill before Short Cut. Off-piste 50-55cm, patchy in open areas. Wax not advised — you’ll gather a small forest of pine needles and twigs! 

Snow Report 16th March 2010

Temperature plus 5, calm, dry. Based on the Short Cut/Leids Leap circuit, there has been no loss of snow since those trails were pisted on 14th March. Trails are fast and compacted, tramlines almost icy. Snow depth off-piste now 70cm, therefore the natural snowpack has reduced by 3-5cm/day over the past 3 days. There is a short (50m.) break in the trail  near the main entrance, but no sign of any thinning elsewhere on the loop. Judging by the forecast, conditions will change over Wednesday and Thursday.

Colin Miller

Clash Snow Report 13th March 2010

87 Skiable days in the Clash this season. Will we make 100?

On the trails, the depth of the layer of soft snow on top of the compacted snowpack is 5cm on shadowed sections and 10-15cm on the sunny bits. Tramlines are glazed and good to ski. Off-piste there are varying grades of yoghurt. The off-piste level snow depth near foot of Short Cut is 80-85cm (down about 10cm from last weekend). Apart from the short thin section near the main entrance, everything still looks good.

Clash Conditons 27th Feb 2010

There has been over 1m of snow on the trails. Some impressive drifts by Biathlon Range. Spent most of the afternoon digging out the garage. The trails have not been groomed.
The road to the Clash is tricky. Hard-packed snow & narrow with few passing places. The car park has only been partially cleared, room for about 8-10 cars. No space on road for parking.
Peter Thorn

Snow Report 22nd February

Went up to the Clash this afternoon with Peter Thorn to do some pisteing and have a play around.

Ran the snowmobile over the Haute Route to Short Cut and then back via Herringbone Hill. Beware of the abandoned excavator if descending Herringbone Hill. Everywhere has continuous deep snow cover with excellent conditions.

Skied up Short-Cut and down Leids Leap. Again plenty of snow and it’s going quite fast at the moment on Leids Leap. Finally over to The Lair and up Secret Passage. Very nice powdery snow on this route.

You really can’t ask for better snow than this and a nice snow plough driver did the big part of the car park on Friday so there’s more parking.

Temperature -1C in the car park.

Snow Report 7th February 2010

After yesterday’s rather slow, damp snow, it was a degree colder today (plus 1 degree), which made all the difference, making the tramlines smooth and fast, and giving the off-piste just the zing it needed. Timberline is amazing. There’s a 2 metre high drift all along the top edge of the forest, with spectacular snow “dunes” reaching up 4 – 5 metres into the trees at one point (see photo attached). Val doesn’t mind if this ends up on a website.

Oh, and there are bears at the Clash — see other photo! I have not asked their permission to publish…

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Snow Report 31st Jan 2010

A brief visit to the Clash today — did not linger too long because of drifting on the roads. 2 other vehicles (4WDs) in car park. Report based on Main trail/Short Cut/Leids Leap.
Clash — Sunday 31 Jan 2010, 1200hrs:
Temp minus 1; snow showers and long sunny intervals; fresh NW wind; drifting in exposed areas.
Off-piste snow depth 60cm, including 15cm fresh powder. The powder is variably distributed on top of the packed trails. Wonderful smooth skiing! Continue reading →

Snow Report 30th Jan 2010

Another outing to the Clash this weekend after the snow on Friday. The roads were quite snowy up from Lumphanan and I had to divert via Insch following a crashed milk tanker between Lumsden and Rhynie.

The signs in Rhynie were showing “Road Closed Cabrach” but the chap in the shop at Rhynie thought you ought to be able to get up to the ski trails so I gave it a go. Sorry to Colin Miller if that was you I saw as I was driving through the village and didn’t stop!

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Snow Report 27th January 2010

Report from Colin Miller.
Snow report for Clash, as of 6pm, Wed 27 January 2010, based on short recce from Car Park along main trail to top of Telemark Twist:
Temperature plus 2, strong NW wind, moonlit evening after wintry shower. After brief interlude of warm temperatures on 27/1/10 the trails appear to have held their snow.  Thanks to grooming some days ago, and to frequent skiing, the main trail has 30cm compacted snow, giving fast skiing. Off-piste there is general cover of 50cm of sugary snow.
Front section of car park has been well ploughed, giving space for 12-15 cars, with some patchy, old ice. A941 has much surface water due to melting snowbanks on 27/1/10. Wintry forecast for next few days suggests snow and road conditions subject to change!