Can this really be Scotland?

What a day!

Started out at just before 6am and drove up through Rannoch Moor and then Glen Coe (which IMHO is one of the most beautiful places on earth) and arrived at the Nevis Range at just after 9am (it would have been earlier ... but we almost ran out of fuel and had to wait for the garage at Lix Tol to open!)

The three guys we were meeting had already bought lift passes so we headed straight up to the top and traversed along 'Back Track' to the top of the Back Corrie. I stopped and took quite a few photos as its such an amazing place. Here's:
* The boys at Back Corrie
* The snow cornice at Back Corrie
* Harris looking over the edge
* John at the top

The run down was pretty amazing (although the drop in at the top through a gap in the snow cornice was not for the faint hearted). Pretty steep but piles of fresh powder. I only took one big tumble! Mad Dog and Ninja Dog seemed to enjoy it too.

All fired up to have another go, we headed up the Braveheart Chair ... and that's when it went a bit wrong! The chair broke down (they had to stop it when it was fully loaded and it wouldn't start up again) and we were sat in mid air for an hour and a half!

Those of you who know Scottish ski resorts will know that today was the first time the Braveheart had been open for 3 years ... and they were surprised when it broke down?

To make matters worse, the chairlift doesn't have a rest for your skis - so our legs were just swinging and pressing our thighs against the hard seat. Eventually someone skied down the chair line and told us they were evacuating the chairlift by rope (!) so we took our skis off and dropped them onto the hillside ... which is when they got the chairlift started again ... so we had to wait for our skis at the top.

Oh well, at least no-one was hurt and I got this shot of a guy on touring skis skinning back up the hill.

Top the day off with a Gaelic Coffee and a cake and then back to Edinburgh just in time for an amazing dinner with Mrs42 and friends (its Mrs42's birthday on Monday).