Skiing at the Nevis Range
>> Sunday, 22 February 2009
The next day started quite early – We were up at 4:45am, showered, had breakfast, got dressed and into the car to get to the ski school for 6am. We got our skis and packed them onto the bus and settled down for the journey.
We were heading for the Nevis Range, which is just past Fort William, and got there just after 9. I was getting a bit worried because I hadn’t seen any evidence of snow all the way up – apart from the occasional small patch on the hills. They had not made a decision on whether the tows were going to run, because it was quite windy further up the hill, but they assured us that there was at least one ski run open.
At 10:30 they started the tows and we got started. The first bit of the trip is in a Gondola, which just involved us having a seat – however the whole way up there wasn’t a single patch of snow. I was starting to get worried. When we arrived at the base station there was a bit of snow. We had a short walk up a hill and we were able to get our skis on. We skied for about 3-400m until we reached another lift. The 4 of us got on the lift and it took us further up the hill. As we started getting to the end of the lift Mo and I started looking at one another, thinking how do we get off this thing!! As it came into the exit platform, the bar came up and it basically catapulted the four of us down a ramp and onto the snow – what a bunch of wallapers we must have looked. Mo landed on her face and then couldn’t get up, I managed to stay on my feet – but only just. If only this had been the most embarrassing point of the day!!!
Once we got ourselves sorted again (luckily no one, apart from the tow attendant had seen our silky smooth skills) there was a 200m calm, traverse where we were able to ski to get to the start of the run. At this point I was starting to think there was something wrong. I was finding it very difficult to slow myself down – not ideal!!
We made it to the top of the ski run, but if we were being awarded any points for style the Brawley's were still on 0. We were all over the place – the snow was really icy and it was difficult to even stand still. First to go was Patrick (obviously) – he shot across the slope managed a few turns and did a “controlled crash” into a big drift about 50m down the slope. I was starting to panic slightly, because if anything happened to the other 3, I was in no position to get to them quickly. I turned to Mo and said that I would try and catch up with Pat and that Meg and her to stay together.
I shot across the slope at 100mph, I had a major snow plough going and was still going too fast. I attempted my first turn, caught the back of my ski on the snow, tried to adjust, failed and started heading down the slope backwards – still at about 100mph!! I managed to stop myself and slowly made it to a patch of grass. Style points – still 0!! I had only made it down about 10m and certainly hadn’t filled Meg or Mo with any confidence as they set off on their attempt. Meg was very nervous, but she was coping with it the best. She made it down to me and continued past. Meg got us 10 style points. I then looked up to see Mo doing the one leg in the air, compensate, reverse manoeuvre which I had just performed – we just lost the 10 style points!!
By this time, Patrick had made it to the bottom – he had just got down as quickly as possible any way possible. Megan made it down having only fallen a few times. Mo and I took about half an hour to make it down, my legs were killing me and I had spent more time on my back than I had on my skis.
Patrick was not wanting to go back up, we tried to talk him into it but he was about to have a flaky – so Mo, Meg and I went up for another go. This time, Megan made it all the way to the bottom without falling – well done Meg – 100 style points. Mo and I had much better runs, still falling quite a bit but a definite improvement!! We only lost 60 of the points! When we got to the bottom Pat and Meg were making a snowman! It was about lunch time by this point so rather than try and force Patrick to have another go we decided that we would go and have lunch.
If there had been lots of snow we would have been able to ski down to the restaurant. However, we had to retrace our steps to get back. Remember the times when we were able to ski on the way to the run – well we now had to walk, with ski boots on and skis over our shoulder! It must have taken about 3/4 hour to get back, and I was gubbed. We had something to eat and realised that we would not really have time to make it back to the run, have a few skis and get back to the bus for 4 o’clock. We finished lunch and by the time we got down on the cable car, we got back to the bus for 3. We got changed and went for a coffee, before the hard-core arrived back about 4:15.
All in all I really enjoyed my day – the skiing conditions (by everyone's account, including the instructors) were rubbish and we were told over and over not to get disheartened by it. We were not the only ones who had found it difficult. However it was all an experience and we will defiantly do it again. And by my calculations we all went home with 40 style points in the bag!!
I had Meg’s camera and the wee video camera which I didn’t use very often (too busy trying to survive!!), but here is what I got.
A few months ago the Michael Brawley Big Band won the Scottish heat of a National Competition. The final is in Cardiff in April sometime and to try and raise funds for the trip they organised a Big Band Night. The place was absolutely full to the brim. The music was sounding great.
We headed over to the Halpin’s for 12:30. Stephen, the boys and myself settled down to watch the Celtic-Rangers game. It ended up 0-0 and wasn’t the best game in the world, but the pies and the Bovril at half time made up for it. Drinking Bovril from a china cup doesn't seem right some how, but it tasted great!!
