walked to middle station,
skinned up the M1 poma uptrack and on to summit of Cairngorm.
Tele'd off south face Cairngorm and across to coire raiebert. Then toured round into coire domhain?, and towards lochs on plateau on way to macdui. but poor viz developed, so turned back upto Cairn Lochan. Great ski back down into corie domhain, then raeibert afetrwards. skinned back to top fiacall ridge corrie cas, and skied down ridge to middle station

sunny spells, snow showers, low cloud. mixed.
waited for cloud to lift so we could see on descents. freezing level above summits.

variable, from spring snow
spring snow with wet fresh on top - very sticky and annoying!, better off without skins at times as snow stuck to skins!
higher up much better consistency of snow.
plateau loaded with snow, more on east and south facing slopes, west facing more patchy.
could easily have skied to macdui and back on monday

andrew and george and ( max, zara, rex - 3 lab X's)

Friday 28: from Corrie Cas car park via Fiacaill Ridge tow-track (nearly complete) to the plateau, then GPS navigation in poor visibility via Ben Macdui to the top of Allt Clach nan Taillear (Tailor?s Burn), where thankfully the clouds broke & the sun came out. Excellent ski (on rather too soft corn snow !) down the Tailor?s Burn to the Lairig Gruh, camping on the little island just before the Corrour Bothy (a well recommended campsite : -)
Saturday 29: Perfect blue-sky day ? hiked up Coire Odhar, climbed Devil?s Point on foot, then yo-yoed the slope under the South top of Cairn Toul (too good to miss, with __ACRES__ of untracked spring snow), before heading via Einich Cairn, Braeriach and Sron na Lairige to Corrie Gorm, skiing to snowline at about 850metres. Then a nightmare 4hr hike out through the Charlamain Gap, arriving back at the car at 11pm. At least the Curry house was still serving takeaways at 11: 30pm!!!
Sun 30: Recuperating in the sun with cappuccino?s at Cairngorm Mountain Sports, then a last minute decision to bag a 2: 30 funicular, telemarking the area till it closed, then yo-yoing Ciste Mhearad (eastern slopes of Cairngorm) before an epic final run of the season run down the Ciste to the mid station boardwalk - watch out for the big hole through to the burn!!!

Fri: nil visibility on plateau, until sun appeared before descending Tailor's burn
Sat: Freezing level about 550m overnight, then perfect blue-sky day

Perfect corn through most of the day, becoming heavy slushy stuff later on & at lower altitudes

Martin & Geoff free-heeling, Lenny on AT gear

geoff at geoffgaunt dot plus dot com

Ski Tour

Coire Cas Car Park - White Lady - Ptarmigan bowl - Cairngorm - Coire Raibert - Coire Domhain - Ben Macdui and return by a similar route (see map)

Warm temps, 7c at car park at 10am, 12c at car park at 5pm
Sunny skies with only patches of broken cloud
Mostly light winds, but gusty on top slopes of Ben Macdui
Freezing level above the summits

Was able to tour from the bottom of the White Lady apart from one broken bit, but there was only on a sliver of snow for a large portion of the way. Good cover remains in the Ptarmigan bowl and Marquis Well.

On the plateau the cover is still generally very good for the time of year. However, there are now broken patches on west facing slopes on the plateau.

Snow on south facing slopes and all slopes below about 1000-1100m was wet snow. North and east facing slopes on the plateau were firmer, refrozen snow and quite enjoyable, but became wetter as the day went on. All in all, good fun!

Simon

smdonald_99 at yahoo dot com

Ski Tour of Coire na Ciste

Coire na Ciste car park - Ciste Gully - Ptarmigan Bowl - Marquis Well - Cairngorm summit and back

Unbroken blue skies all the way from Edinburgh to the Ciste car park, then unbroken cloud with cloud base at level of Plateau.

Occasional light drizzle with wet snow above 1100m.

Freezing level above the summits.

Able to ski from approx. 700-750m in Ciste Gully. Wet snow throughout. Snow quite sticky generally despite newly services skis. Decent coverage above 1000m, below skiing on strips of snow, but Ciste Gully complete to level of boardwalks to Ciste chairs with one dodgy section with exposure of the burn at about 850m.

Plateau only briefly seen through clouds, but appears complete apart from on west facing slopes where the cover is broken.

Simon

smdonald_99 at yahoo dot com

From Cain Gorm car park skinned up Sron an Aonaich (Day lodge,M2 pistes), to the summit. Then Macdui, down tailor's burn, up Corie Odhar(Corrour) to Cairn Toul, Angels Peak, Braeriach. and out by Corie Gorm and the Chalmain Gap.

AM NW 20-40, unpleasant squalls, clouds on summits. PM winds fell light and pleasantly sunny. Overnight freeze began to thaw ~10: 30. summits re-freeze by about 17: 00.

On (and off) the snow from 700m. Plateau coverage and depth very good. Macdui direction indicator nearly buried. Only exposed ridges and West facing slopes are rocky. Really superb snow. Braeriach above 1200m has hardly a rock showing and the cairn is buried.
The Great Moss also looked completely covered, but unfortunately the flat ground above Lurcher's is already bare.

Martin, James