Aviemore & Lecht

A hairy drive up was had on a Thursday night after work. Niels doing a sterling job at the wheel while snow, rain and huge trucks bore down on us.

Bev and Tim had the clever idea of flying from Luton to Inverness, getting their quicker than we did from Glasgow.

Base camp in Aviemore was Kila B+B across from the train station. Food and drink was mostly consumed in the Cairngorm Hotel next door. And it was good.

Friday was a no hoper as far as snowboarding went.High winds had persisted through the night, and although there was snow piled high in town, the mountain tops were being scoured. Traveling up the ski road we and lots of others found the road closed by the snow gates. We were told they'd reconsider at 12.30. One snowman and several snowballs later found us heading back into town. They couldn't keep the road clear to get anyone up to the hill.

Saturday we got up the mountain and faced the 'White Mare' that was the summit at Cairngorm. Hundreds of ski lessons and zero visibility ... great! Pretty good snow underneath though, so long as you didn't stray onto the rocks.

Sunday turned into a beautiful 'Bluebird' day and it was quickly decided that the Lecht would be our destination. It would be a first time for everyone. It turned out to be a great day, very warm, but very busy. What would you expect?

Monday I headed home by train and that was the end of a nice extended weekend. Thanks to everyone. Michael. [back to archive]