Very ‘short’ break to the Scottish slopes…

Francois is back from Scotland where he made a brave attempt to hit the slopes…

It snowed so much in Scotland that Aviemore had no access roads open on Saturday, so we were up at 6am and decided to try Glenshee! Having arrived in close to the resort at 8.15am, we found ourselves stuck in terrible traffic. As we crawled our way along we eventually found out the road had been blocked by the police… No access! We were told that we had to wait until 10am when they will re-access the situation!! 10 am came and went, as did 11am and when it got to 11.30am, we decided to go head home as it had been snowing quite a lot in the last hours, and we didn’t want to risk getting stuck up the mountain or on the road (and we had also exhausted the car’s collection of CDs too!) The weather was supposed to pick up for Sunday, so we thought we would try again in the morning.

Finding out the hard way that the road was closed!

We didn’t leave as early this time, and managed to get to the resort around 10.45am – as did the whole of Scotland! After getting ready, we had to queue for ski rental. Started queuing at 11.30, and got out at 12.30! At that stage, I was hungry, but after looking at the next queue for food, I thought I could hold on for a little longer as I wanted to hit the slopes! Take it this way: one chair lift was working and the rest were button lifts – not the best for the begginner boarders of the group! Even the best ones seemed to struggle with the inconsistency of the buttons! So we were off to join the queue for the chair…

The queue for the chair lift

Overall, it was good to be back on fresh snow, and I managed get down  about 5 times a very hard blue! Haha. The queues to get up the hill were just spoiling everyone’s fun, and it’s understandable that a small ski resort cannot invest in the infrastructures that we got accustomed to when taking  ski holidays in France. A few pieces of advice for whoever decides to go skiing in Scotland: If you are looking for a workout, don’t go there as you won’t have enough time on the slopes to warm up after the 30mins queuing. Also, bring your own equipment as even if the ski rental is cheap enough, there is a reason for it to be (I’m size 8 ½ boot-size, but none available… and I remembered having the same skis when I first started skiing, back in 1982!).

I can say now that I’ve done it, but won’t do it again unless I’m staying up there for a week at least, where I might have a chance to go skiing for more than 5 hours over the week. I’m sorry to say I don’t feel too bad for writing this as even my Scottish friends agree with me! These resorts are good for locals, not for a short break when everyone has the same idea I’m afraid.

Us finally hitting the slopes!