We now have 2 ski resorts around a hours drive from Oban both offering
different types of skiing.
Glencoe or White Corries is at the eastern  end of Glencoe and is
one of Scotland’s oldest ski resorts and sometimes it shows!
The ski area is accessed by a double chair which leads to the plateau
which is not flat as it’s name suggests but has a gentle gradient.
The Plateau Poma then gives access to the higher slopes as well
as serving as a beginners lift. The main part of the hill has 2
tiers, the lower tier is served by a single chair and a T bar and
offers Mugs Alley, where many Scottish skiers have cut their teeth,
as well as other relatively short but in parts quite steep pistes.
Above this there is a Poma and a T bar which opens up the upper
part of the mountain which has several options from Main Basin,
a good red run, through to Flypaper Scotland’s steepest piste.
Nevis Range or Aonach Mor is about 4 miles north of Fort William
and takes about a 75 minute drive from Oban. Nevis Range is Scotland’s
newest ski area and the owners are continuing to develop the skiing.
A six man gondola leaves the carpark and finishes right at the Snowgoose
restaurant at 2300ft. This means that it is well used year round
for people travelling up the mountain to take in the fresh air and
have lunch. There are beginners areas around the restaurant but
the main skiing is on Snowgoose gully which holds snow well. This
area is accessed by a 4 man chair and a T bar.
About 3 years ago a new chair was put in the coire to the north
of the summit which has opened up a large amount of extra skiing.
The skiing area at Nevis Range is now fairly extensive and for snowboarders
there is usually a snowboard area off the 4 man chair which can
be very busy at weekend. Scotland has a maritime climate and as
such can be unpredictable and in the winter can be very frustrating
with heavy snow falls one week and mild rain the next so the snow
conditions can be variable to say the least.
However when it’s good it can be very good and the pictures
below are from the winter of ‘94 when we had more snow than
we knew what to do with. The lifts shown are the upper tier at Glencoe
where the snow has completely buried the 20 ft pylons for the T
bar and looking up the hill from the cafe you can see the Mugs Alley
chairlift which at one stage went through a trough in the snow.
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