igloo4you Wrote:
ESD1711,
Glencoe average start date would be mid January if you look back over the 60 years, latest start date was 19th Feb.
Thanks Andy, but that doesnt really answer the question I'd asked.
I'm not trying to trip anyone up here or anything - i'm just genuinely interested in what we perceive as early / late starts and why folk get so precious about the suggestion its not been a good start to a year.
As i've said, i'm not really sure why the fact lifts didnt turn till February way back in nineteen fifty / sixty / seventy something are really relevant in the here and now. Consider the various advances in technology over those 60 years. Could some of the historical 'later' starts have been brought forward if we'd had the snow making capabilites and pisting machines etc?
Ignoring that and considering the fact 5 years in the last 10 have had pre Christmas sliding at Glencoe.... That alone to me suggests that its not such a rarity in the here and now. And thats only for one of the resorts, the one which traditionally probably needs the most snow to get going.
Would be nice to get some dates / figures for the other areas too, I daresay someone will have them to hand somewhere.
Perhaps it would be fairer to say 'its been an awful start to the season in comparison to the last decade'.