Any snowsports in Ireland?

snowstreams

Good luck getting up there on the roads. Yeah I dont see it lasting very long, but maybe with some good drifting it might get deep enough to last a good while.

sarsfield06

This evenings trip report. Drove up military road, road is dry and clear as far as lough bray but not passable after that. Snow is in decent order, wind packed. Depth varies so need to pick spot to slide but kippure gullies look well packed. Hadn't time to go up kippure so built a little kicker beside the road and had a bit of fun for an hour. Temp on leaving at 2030 was -1.5c but wind chill made it feel much colder. Snow depth varied from maybe 20cm to waist deep in drifts.

sarsfield06

Not the best resolution as it was on my iphone, but you get the idea, just above Military Road looking towards Kippure at about 8.30pm yesterday evening.

omega man

Hi all. Looks nice. Im not familiar with this area at all. Would there be any half decent walking tracks etc that would give any possibility of a bit of cross country?? I keep my skiis abroad but would defo bring them home next season if i thought i could get even a sniff of skiing in my own back yard so to speak! Cheers.

Psydeshow

Hey guys, does anyone know if we're gettin any conditions like this down here in Cork/Kerry? or is all the snow being dumped up the northern half of the country? Would be well up for some skiing action over the weekend!

sarsfield06

The rain today has done alor of damage to the snow although kippure still holding gully snow. But i'd say it would need to firm up to be skiable.

Not sure about cc skiing, there's forest tracks around the dublin mtns but obviously no prep work done on trails, narrow cc skis might struggle in a foot of fresh snow.

omega man

sarsfield06 wrote: »

Not sure about cc skiing, there's forest tracks around the dublin mtns but obviously no prep work done on trails, narrow cc skis might struggle in a foot of fresh snow.

Thanks sarsfield06. No groomed trails not a problem if enough snow on the ground over a half decent distance on 'walking' tracks. Getting the right wax is another story but would love to give it a go, maybe next year.

sarsfield06

snow pics Dublin 31 March, 1 April 2010

31 March








April 1st

opinion guy

Great photos.
Legend. Wish I had been more energetic and gone up!
I suppose this is now the end of Ireland's first ski season then.:mad:

snowcrazie

Great Pics , pity the snow is nearly all gone!
SnowDomes will have to do until next season!

sarsfield06

Snowdomes, nah, there's still plenty of real outdoor snow about for a while yet, although not in Ireland. Our nearest snow in Scotland should have skiing well into May and had some super snow conditions over Easter. I'm off to Val Thorens the last week of this month, there should still be full cover at that time of year with lifts there open until first week of May.

Of course glaciers like Kitzsteinhorn near Salzburg stay open all year with still lots of powder potential in April and May and even maybe July!

opinion guy

Tignes has 365 skiing days a year most years.

sarsfield06

There's loads of them open in summer although some might have a small break in may/june les 2 alpes, soelden, hintertux, stubai, saas fee I think and some more.

Although if u live near a snowdome then that makes sense also!

snowstreams

Pity I missed the last blast for the ski season. Someone should build a portable winch/lift system for next years Irish ski season. Wakeboarders use winches to pull themselves along without the need of a boat. something like that should work as a ski lift with different gearing and a few changes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39897951@N04/3681288530/in/set-72157623156201533/

sarsfield06

That looks interesting, something fairly mobile would be needed, apparently the ski club of ireland have a mobile lift. Fattes will be able to confirm if this is true.

Fattes

Rumour has it that there are 3/4 Mobile tow ropes in Ireland all held by ski club members some of the original founders still have them in storage I think.

But if you really want to buy one

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1503953&highlight=tow+lift#1503953

opinion guy

Err so if all these tow ropes are lying around the place why didn't some one set one up on kippure for the last few months ??:eek:

Poster King

I suspect that they may well have been used, but would YOU post it on boards.ie if you had one set up somewhere?
I definitely remember the Ski Club of Ireland having one when I was a kid, back in about 1980. For a few winters in a row there was quite a lot of snow and I can remember being in some field somewhere not too far from Kilternan and there being a portable lift set up. I think the top end was fixed to a tree and it was just a rope and a small motor.

A snowmobile would have been fantastic this winter. Think of all the places you could have gone in the Wicklow mountains. If I win the Lotto tomorrow I think I'll buy one and keep it in storage just in case.

opinion guy

Poster King wrote: »

I suspect that they may well have been used, but would YOU post it on boards.ie if you had one set up somewhere?
I definitely remember the Ski Club of Ireland having one when I was a kid, back in about 1980. For a few winters in a row there was quite a lot of snow and I can remember being in some field somewhere not too far from Kilternan and there being a portable lift set up. I think the top end was fixed to a tree and it was just a rope and a small motor.

Well I was out at the ski club and there was no sight of/mention of such a thing.

A snowmobile would have been fantastic this winter. Think of all the places you could have gone in the Wicklow mountains. If I win the Lotto tomorrow I think I'll buy one and keep it in storage just in case.

Bit useless the rest of the time thou. Maybe a quad bike would have done the trick ?

snowstreams

Thanks for the link Fattes. That portable tow seems like an excellent little piece of kit, since 2 people can carry it. Yeah Kippure would have been a great spot for it. For £750 secondhand it isnt too dear either. If next winter is anything like the last 2 winters, it sure would be worth it.

Poster King

A quad bike would have been no use, even with chains, on deep powder snow which is what we had. Snowmobiles can glide over deep powder and go up pretty steep hills too, even with two people on them.
I heard a rumour that the ESB, or maybe RTE, purchased one several years ago so that they could access mountain top aerials/antennae in snowy conditions and that it sat idle for years until 2009 when it got some use. If true, I'd say those engineers could have had great craic.

opinion guy

Poster King wrote: »

A quad bike would have been no use, even with chains, on deep powder snow which is what we had. Snowmobiles can glide over deep powder and go up pretty steep hills too, even with two people on them.
I heard a rumour that the ESB, or maybe RTE, purchased one several years ago so that they could access mountain top aerials/antennae in snowy conditions and that it sat idle for years until 2009 when it got some use. If true, I'd say those engineers could have had great craic.

:D
Don't start those rumours - you saw the trouble the English riot police guys got into for using their shields as slides I assume?? Imagine the trouble of engineers having fun on a snow-mobile??? The opulence!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTPVXvYUIA

Fattes

I suspect that they may well have been used, but would YOU post it on boards.ie if you had one set up somewhere?

They most certainly where not used from what I know and I am sure i would have heard;)

One of them is in storage in Greystones somwhere and the other two I have no Idea but I will do some investigation and try to figure out what is going on with the tow ropes.

Poster King

Fattes wrote: »

They most certainly where not used from what I know and I am sure i would have heard;)

One of them is in storage in Greystones somwhere and the other two I have no Idea but I will do some investigation and try to figure out what is going on with the tow ropes.

Well if there are portable ski lifts in existence and they were not used this past winter, then when the hell will they ever be used. I demand an investigation!

opinion guy

So it would seem to odds of this happening in future are not so low as one might think:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8615789.stm

sarsfield06

If decent snow comes next year would be worth seeing could we get this kit working. I now have a snow shovel so I could do some park shaping!

opinion guy

Jaysus if this volcano keeps up we could be in for a winter next year that makes this one look positively tropical!

I knew I should have gotten snow chains...

snowstreams

paulharte wrote: »

fair play on the photos, and we thought last feb was a '100 year storm'!!!

Maybe this will happen every year!!!!

Looks like this is happening every year. And getting better all the time too!

opinion guy

opinion guy wrote: »

Jaysus if this volcano keeps up we could be in for a winter next year that makes this one look positively tropical!

I knew I should have gotten snow chains...

Feck. Should have put on some money on this !