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Author: PeterS (213.40.131.---)
Date: 23:55
hrs on Mon 06 Jan 03
It's highly variable !
So far this year the tow has run on about 8 days,
but some of those were only for the really keen
! Last year it hardly opened at all - an absolutely
disasterous season in the Pennines, although there
was one day when we couldn't get there because
the road was blocked. Raise in the Lake District,
is about 350' higher than Yad Moss and at least
got a few decent days last year.
But of course a lot
depends on the decent conditions arriving in time
for the weekend which is a 2 in 7 chance. The
even more variable nature of northern English
winters means that a large fall of snow can come...and
go very quickly so you have to be prepared to
drop everything and ski. At Yad Moss direction
of fall is also important. The run faces west
which means that it is exposed to strong and warm
winds. However the biggest blizzards tend to come
from the east or southeast which is ideal at Yad
Moss because it's sheltered from that direction
and fills in best that way.
An easterly blowing you down the slope is also
preferable to a westerly blowing you up it. But......an
easterly also tends to block the road more easily!
2001 would have been
a great season (see the website pictures).We had
a deep fall of snow, the whole hillside had been
pisted to perfection, the anticyclone was nicely
timed to coincide with the weekend, but then.........Foot
and Mouth appeared and good winter fun.
In 1996 the tow ran
quite a few times before Christmas and then from
mid January it ran every weekend through to Easter
bar two. One when there was too much snow and
one when there wasn't quite enough.
In the good old days
of the late 1970s and early 1980s we operated
portable then fixed rope tows. In 1979 the B6277
was closed by deep drifts for a month. On Great
Dun Fell snow lay in places to a depth of over
30'. Several members of the club skied that year
on Cross Fell on the 2nd July and a patch of snow
was still visible from the M6 until the end of
August !
In 1989 the Engine
hut on Raise and the bottom of their tow were
completely buried. The snow was so deep that they
skiied well into April. I'm also pretty certain
that they've skied there in May and possibly even
June. No doubt Weardale and Raise have lots of
other stories of big blizzards and huge dumps
in the past.
Skiing in the UK
is such a battle against the odds. Perhaps that's
why we like it so much when it is good.
Lets hope that as
Alan has pointed out this winter follows the pattern
of 2001 with lots of easterly weather.
Peter S.
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