Weardale Ski Club: Schneevorhersage

Went up to Swinhope recently and was surprised at the area. There was a fair bit of snow up there, but some long grasses were poking through the upper runs. The lower runs were similar to those at Yad Moss, whilst the runs of the top lift were steeper and more naturally undulating. With good snow there is huge potential for exploring and hiking, with gulleys and steeps off to both sides of the top lift (if you are prepared to walk a bit). The road definitely needs snow chains or a 4wd (we learned the hard way, but were early enough not to cause anyone any delay). There is plenty of variety, with lots of natural kicker building spots and drop-offs. When we visited we found there were a number of kickers already built of a variety of sizes. These in no way constitute a professionally built park, but are just jumps groups of people have built when they visited. The lifts are very good, fast-ish and when we were there even a long looking queue seemed to be cleared in less than 10 minutes. One problem was the number of beginner snowboarders who could not manage the bottom pomma lift, and even proficient snowboarders seemed to struggle on the top lift. In conclusion, needs a bit more snow than Yad Moss does to be decent, and is a bit more of a treck, but when the snow is good it is by far the best place to ski (maybe not snowboard if you don't get on with pommas) in England.