A reminder for anyone who hasn’t yet joined this season that our reduced rate subscriptions end today, 30th November. Membership rates are very cheap anyway – a full season for less than an hour at Chill Factore – but the reduced rate subscriptions are even cheaper ie £25 for individual membership or £50 for a family compared to the full rate of £35 and £70. To join, go to the Membership page.
Author: Ski-Allenheads
Not enough snow
A couple of cms of snow at Allenheads but not enough to ski or board on. Also expect a slow thaw later this morning and no more snow so we’ll have to wait for the next proper snowfall.
Snow going quickly – not opening today
I’m afraid conditions are as we expected. There’s a fairly quick thaw – temperature about 3 degrees – and the snow is going fast. We’ll have to wait for the next cold spell before we open again. Hopefully this early start to the snow season is a harbinger of a snowy winter to come.
Good day today but snow on the way out
Very good day today on a mix of packed snow with a bit of fresh added and some icy patches. Complete cover again, even at the end of the day. Unfortunately the forecast is for the weather to warm up overnight with some sleet followed by rain so it’s unlikely we’ll be able to open tomorrow. However we will check conditions first thing in the morning and will update around 8.30am.
Good day today & Opening tomorrow, Thursday
A very good day at Allenheads – blue sky, minus 1oC and 11cms of lovely light snow. Only downsides were absence of people – there were only a dozen of us – and a frozen rope on A tow. The tow worked OK but tended to slip if more than 2 people on the tow at a time. I suspect we’ll have the same problem tomorrow although it might ease as the day goes on.
We’ll run the tows tomorrow from about 11.00 until about 3.00, maybe a little bit later. We’ve got some work to do on both tows which we’ll try and get done from 11.00 but will need some support, especially to replace the support rope at the top of A tow. So if you plan to come tomorrow, will be great if you can get there for 11.00. The work should take less than 30 minutes.
Difficult to be sure but I think we’ll also be able to open on Friday but probably not Saturday.
Tows running today
There’s about 10cms of snow at Allenheads and a forecast of sub zero temperatures all day so conditions are looking good. We’ll open and run the tows from about 10.30. If possible, we will do some of the work on the tows we’d planned for tomorrow. That means you may be asked to help and there may be some short interuptions to the running of the tows.
Usual advice – you’ll need to take a shovel to dig a parking space. As its Wednesday, the Hemmel Cafe is not open.
Membership open and possible skiing tomorrow
We are now open for membership for the coming season. Reduced rates still apply until the 1st December. See https://ski-allenheads.co.uk/membership/ for all the details.
Quite varying forecasts but it is looking likely that it will snow at Allenheads overnight tonight with a possibility that there will be enough snow to open tomorrow. We’ll check conditions tomorrow morning and update once we know how things look.
Couple of cms of snow
There’s a couple of cms of snow at Allenheads but not enough to make skiing viable. More snow is forecast over the next 2 days, along with some sleet, so enough may accumulate to make opening possible. There’ll be an update as things change.
Not opening on Monday
Due to water leaks in the houses of today’s potential tow operators, we are now unable to get to Allenheads to run the tows. So we will not open today.
Opening Monday
Another excellent days skiing and boarding for an estimated 120 – 150 members and the snow has continued to be very good with full coverage across the field apart from the odd patch such as on a slalom course.
The forecast is for a slow thaw overnight and tomorrow morning, then warming up quickly tomorrow afternoon. Given the depth of snow, we think it will remain skiable for a period tomorrow before bare patches appear so we will open one tow – the one by the entrance – at 10.30 and look to continue running until early afternoon, perhaps 2.00pm, assuming conditions are ok. We will check the field tomorrow morning and provide another update if conditions have significantly changed.
The Hemmel Cafe will be open from 10.00am to 3.30pm.