can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?
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I agree. When I lived in Manchester, I ran a business running coach tours to Cairngorm, traveling overnight on Friday and Sunday, two days skiing. (12 hours each way)
I'm pretty sure it must have been one of our customers that started the Craghopper brand!
On the rare occasions that you have a combination of good snow and good weather, it is enjoyable.
Even though I live close to the area, at the end of last season, I made a decision to covert a one day trip to Glenshee into a half week end of season trip to Niederau...
No, no, I was a very young skier, SB! I too was still in shorts. :oops:
We ran the trips every weekend. I think it was 1967 start, and by the next season we were doing a coach from Leeds and one from Manchester. The Carlisle section was opened in 1970, and the first time I used it was at the end of my first Niederau season when I took my then girlfriend, (later Frau Mac), from London up to Cairngorm. (Her first time on skis)
By then, I had decided to go full time skiing, and I sold out my share in Trans Penine for £90. The business was later sold for £50,000, but in 1970, £90 was gold to me!
Such was the weather in Scotland, it became the norm, that after working for the ski school in Austria for the winter. I then instructed for Trans Penine on their Scottish Easter trips.
Isn't nostalgia wonderful?
Anyway, what I would call keen is walking up Cross Fell, carrying skis, and zipping down 200 yard stretches at the top.
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Started by Funky fazza in Ski Chatter 11-Nov-2014 - 16 Replies
Funky fazza posted Nov-2014
Hi, me, my wife and my two girls are off to Bansko again this Christmas but I was also thinking about going to Scotland for a weekend of skiing and boarding. Can anyone recommend a decent resort and place to stay sometime during March?
Dave Mac
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
The nearest main town is Aviemore, 12 miles from the ski area of Cairngorm. The Hilton Coylumbridge Hotel is closer, just over 8 miles from the ski area.
Glenshee has just lost it's only hotel in a fire,but it was a dump.
I live just over an hour from Glenshee, and because of the variable weather, I don't make any decisions to go until one or two days beforehand.
This was Glenshee Tiger run two seasons ago, I am stood on top of 2ft of snow:
Glenshee has just lost it's only hotel in a fire,but it was a dump.
I live just over an hour from Glenshee, and because of the variable weather, I don't make any decisions to go until one or two days beforehand.
This was Glenshee Tiger run two seasons ago, I am stood on top of 2ft of snow:
Edited 1 time. Last update at 11-Nov-2014
Bonfire
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
Was the Spittal Hotel not closed anyway?
I have given up on Scotland, it takes nine hours to get their and often the roads and/or ski lifts are shut due to wind
I have given up on Scotland, it takes nine hours to get their and often the roads and/or ski lifts are shut due to wind
Dave Mac
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
Bonfire wrote:Was the Spittal Hotel not closed anyway?
I have given up on Scotland, it takes nine hours to get their and often the roads and/or ski lifts are shut due to wind
I agree. When I lived in Manchester, I ran a business running coach tours to Cairngorm, traveling overnight on Friday and Sunday, two days skiing. (12 hours each way)
I'm pretty sure it must have been one of our customers that started the Craghopper brand!
On the rare occasions that you have a combination of good snow and good weather, it is enjoyable.
Even though I live close to the area, at the end of last season, I made a decision to covert a one day trip to Glenshee into a half week end of season trip to Niederau...
SwingBeep
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
12 hours from Manchester to Cairngorm! Were you using stage coaches?
When we used to go (a few after years after the internal combustion engine had been invented) the coaches in use then managed to make get us to Aviemore just after the hotel bar closed on Friday night???? The hotel the tour operator used (Red Guide Ski Tours) was a dump, the food was awful and the beer was grim. I think the beer is much improved now.
As that part of the world has a sub arctic climate, the weather is very changeable. As they used to say on Stingray "anything can happen in the next half hour" and frequently does. When the weather's good it's great. I have fantastic memories of skiing and mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands, but when conditions are bad it's desperate.
Save your money for a trip to the Alps, that's what most of the Scots do!
P.S. Red Guide also did 7 day self catering trips to the Alps for 79 quid, happy days!
When we used to go (a few after years after the internal combustion engine had been invented) the coaches in use then managed to make get us to Aviemore just after the hotel bar closed on Friday night???? The hotel the tour operator used (Red Guide Ski Tours) was a dump, the food was awful and the beer was grim. I think the beer is much improved now.
As that part of the world has a sub arctic climate, the weather is very changeable. As they used to say on Stingray "anything can happen in the next half hour" and frequently does. When the weather's good it's great. I have fantastic memories of skiing and mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands, but when conditions are bad it's desperate.
Save your money for a trip to the Alps, that's what most of the Scots do!
P.S. Red Guide also did 7 day self catering trips to the Alps for 79 quid, happy days!
Dave Mac
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
It was 12 hours because the M6 was only part complete, when we were taking coaches, there was a link between the Preston and Lancaster bypasses, all 2 lane. The remainder of the routes were trunk roads.
Leaving from outside Eliis Brighams shop at 7.00pm, we would stop in Dalwhinnie or Kingussie for breakfast, before collecting hire skis from Frith Finlayson in Aviemore. Up the Loch Morloch road, where, on occasion, all 40 of the passengers would have to get off and walk up the steep road sections..... struggling to get round the Devils Elbow, (no longer exists)
So the whole journey as far as Cairngorm car park was nearer 15 hours.
Ellis Brigham had a zippy sports car and could do the journey in six and a half hours!
I agree with you, SB. It is cheaper for me to ski a couple of weeks in Austria, than on Cairngorm!
Leaving from outside Eliis Brighams shop at 7.00pm, we would stop in Dalwhinnie or Kingussie for breakfast, before collecting hire skis from Frith Finlayson in Aviemore. Up the Loch Morloch road, where, on occasion, all 40 of the passengers would have to get off and walk up the steep road sections..... struggling to get round the Devils Elbow, (no longer exists)
So the whole journey as far as Cairngorm car park was nearer 15 hours.
Ellis Brigham had a zippy sports car and could do the journey in six and a half hours!
I agree with you, SB. It is cheaper for me to ski a couple of weeks in Austria, than on Cairngorm!
SwingBeep
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
That must of been in the mid 1960s (the section joining the Preston and Lancaster bypasses opened in 1965), I was still in short trousers then!
You must have been really keen, 15 hrs in a 1960s coach must have been pretty grim. How many times a season did you manage to put on a trip?
By the time I started going up for weekends, over a decade later the roads had improved enormously.
You must have been really keen, 15 hrs in a 1960s coach must have been pretty grim. How many times a season did you manage to put on a trip?
By the time I started going up for weekends, over a decade later the roads had improved enormously.
Dave Mac
reply to 'can anyone recommend going to Scotland for a weekend of family skiing and boarding?' posted Nov-2014
SwingBeep wrote:That must of been in the mid 1960s (the section joining the Preston and Lancaster bypasses opened in 1965), I was still in short trousers then!
You must have been really keen, 15 hrs in a 1960s coach must have been pretty grim. How many times a season did you manage to put on a trip?
By the time I started going up for weekends, over a decade later the roads had improved enormously.
No, no, I was a very young skier, SB! I too was still in shorts. :oops:
We ran the trips every weekend. I think it was 1967 start, and by the next season we were doing a coach from Leeds and one from Manchester. The Carlisle section was opened in 1970, and the first time I used it was at the end of my first Niederau season when I took my then girlfriend, (later Frau Mac), from London up to Cairngorm. (Her first time on skis)
By then, I had decided to go full time skiing, and I sold out my share in Trans Penine for £90. The business was later sold for £50,000, but in 1970, £90 was gold to me!
Such was the weather in Scotland, it became the norm, that after working for the ski school in Austria for the winter. I then instructed for Trans Penine on their Scottish Easter trips.
Isn't nostalgia wonderful?
Anyway, what I would call keen is walking up Cross Fell, carrying skis, and zipping down 200 yard stretches at the top.
Edited 1 time. Last update at 27-Nov-2014
Topic last updated on 28-November-2014 at 22:16