A bit (a lot) of shovelling and we'll be fine We've actually still got a 700 metre unbroken run along the lip of the gully plus the two lengths of temporary fencing we set up have demonstrated how effective even a 100 cm plastic barrier can be as the snow is still 30-50 cm deep and about 4-5 metres wide in the 2 patches collected by the fencing.

Ross, did you get a supply of clips from Harwood with the tow ?

Yep, we got a crate full of wooden (a few layers of marine ply IIRC) clips Peter, don't know how many there. I also ordered a nutcracker from NZ to see how that works out too.

We put a 'temporary' building on the hill yesterday for use as a shelter and club hut. Longer term, we'll either do our best to clad it in the style of a traditional Alpine lodge or get ourselves a purpose built one.

We're hoping to get the webcams and weather station up and running later this week, courtesy of Alan's expertise and funded by the kind donations from the public.

We also span the rope tow for the first time yesterday which was a brilliant and very exciting experience ... I recorded some video which Anjo will probably have uploaded to the club's website tomorrow.

A few pictures from yesterday, there was even some skiing done

Wee bit of video from last weekend, including the ski tow's first test. Anjo has overlaid it with 'Kool & The Gang'. That takes me back to school disco days

[youtu.be]

Great to see the progress Ross, hats off to all the hard workers

Cheers Stephen :-)

Whilst it seems everybody else was in the Highlands enjoying the best skiing of the season, we've just had five days straight on Lowther Hill, drilling, cutting, fixing, wiring and networking data across what seems like the most erratic mobile coverage in Scotland. But touch wood (and we've done a lot of that since Wednesday), we're now on-line with 2 automated cameras looking down the hill across the club's ski slopes on Lowther Hill itself, all powered by just the sun and communicating to the world via mobile phone masts somewhere out there. We couldn't have done it without the dedication and expertise of Alan (cheers pal ), and the donations that bought the hardware to make it possible. We'll test the mobile networks over the coming weeks to find the most reliable operator, add the live weather feed and extend the camera network to include a view up from the club house too.

Camera linky ... [www.winterhighland.info]

More pix (mostly Sunday's stunning sunset) ... [www.flickr.com]

Making adjustments


Powered by the sun


Bathed by the sunset


The Glasgow Burbs




Edited 1 times. Last edit at 00.03hrs Tue 7 Apr 15 by moffatross.

Gorgeous.

Chappeau to you all.

Some fairly hefty snow showers have come over Lowther Hill late this afternoon - check out the cams at [www.winterhighland.info] .





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 16.59hrs Mon 27 Apr 15 by alan.

An excellent afternoon at the Lowther Hills ski club open day, this started at the Wanlockhead Inn with a welcome from Anjo and an interesting talk on the history of wintersports in the area. We then heard about the future plans for developing the skiing on Lowther hill and some information from Alan and Ross about the use off and benefits of proper snow fencing. We then took a trip to the "Golf ball" at top of Lowther hill and took a walk down to the main tow engine hut where everyone was shown inside and how it works. We then took a walk down the length of the main tow (450m) looking at the main ski slope. It was a cool and blustery afternoon but there were still great views from the hill. We then got down to the temporary club house for a coffee and a warmup.
I look forward to getting out on the hill next season when the snow arrives again.