The Lecht

I took the kids to the Lecht today which is another ski field close to Aberdeen. After our successful day at Glenshee last weekend I thought I’d try to keep the momentum going with skiing and get another half day in for the kids.

We chose the Lecht this time for several reasons. It’s better for beginners, cheaper, slightly closer to Aberdeen, and they have electric car charging sockets which is very important as I wasn’t confident I’d make it all the way to the Lecht and back in one go.

The only downside is the road up to the Lecht is steep and windy and infinitely more scary than the one to Glenshee. However, one of the advantages of having our own car now is we can control the safety features like tyres and we do have snow tyres. None of the car-club cars we used to use had snow tyres which is one of the reasons we never went to the ski fields before.

I managed to drive there without careening off the side of a cliff but the electric car charging sockets were difficult to get to and one of them wasn’t working. The car got stuck initially and I had to find a shovel to dig my way out. Eventually a member of the public gave the car a push and I managed to reach the socket. It doesn’t look so bad in this photo but there was a big pile of snow over to the left of the car. Thankfully I made it out in the afternoon without any difficulty. Overall the car managed so well and I’ll feel more confident next time. She’s a good little car the Zoë.

The drive to the Lecht, although scary, is beautiful. At the bottom of the hill is the lonely and austere Corgarff Castle. It was a magnificent sight in the barren and white landscape around it. I asked Daniel to take a photo as we drove past but his photography skills need a bit of work. Somehow he managed to get a tree in front of the castle on his first attempt.

Then a sign on the second go.

Then as we went up the hill I asked him to take a photo of the castle in the valley below. It’s difficult to see in this photo but it’s the cream building at the top left.

The Lecht ski field is really nice. The main ski building has a café, equipment rental, ski school, and shop so you don’t have to traipse from one place to another to get all the bits you need. It’s also architecturally pleasing to look at. The main building is on the left in this next photo.

Here’s another photo of it; the building on the left.

They’ve got two magic carpets and three excellent runs for beginners.

There’s even a wind turbine which powers the snow factory and car charging stations.

Elizabeth was pretty miserable in the beginning again. She found it hard and I think is a bit scared about going down. At one point she went on strike, took her skis off and was threatening to walk down. I only just managed to get her to put them back on.

Things changed when we looked over at Daniel at one point just in time to see him fall over and then slide down much of the way on his bottom. That cheered her up immensely and she was happy from then on. Nothing like a bit of schadenfreude to lighten the mood.

The café has massive windows overlooking the ski slope. It was really nice. The food was cheap but not particularly healthy. It was burgers and chips.

We left just before it got dark. I wanted to get out of the car park before the sunset and this time Elizabeth took a couple of photos from the car on the way down.

We loved the Lecht and will definitely go back.