Upper Slochd forest trails

Cold and snowy with sub zero temps

Good complete snow cover with soft powder and a wet soft base in places (puddles!) Should be good with an overnight freeze now the trails have been pisted..

Ron Walker and Fi Chappell

ron at talisman-activities dot co dot uk

Linn of Dee, bike to Derry Lodge, hike Luibeg & Sron Riach. - Skins on at 1050m shoulder Sputan Dearg, traverse to upper Taillears Gully, continue on ski to Macdui summit cairn. - Ski off into Garbhe Uisge Mor, skin back to Sputan Dearg top, and ski full run to Loch Etchachan. - Hike out via hut and Glen Derry. - Bike out to Linn of Dee.

Light winds, not as forecast, good! - Brilliant sunny morning for ascent, cloud moving in midday, and tops became engulfed in a calm mist. Mist cleared after ski off, typical! Dry & fair for hike/ride out at end of day. - Was setting up for a cold night on snowpack.

More snow than expected. : ) Skis on about 1050m on ascent, lovely spring snow and good wide cover on ascent line. Easy to traverse over to Taillears Gully for brief dabble without losing too much height, and continue on good snow to summit.

Still possible to make summit by careful choice without removing skis. Possible to ski off East from summit. Garbhe Uisge Mor has deep wide cover, and in mist was totally featureless. - So, had to skin by compass for my first time! Found Sputan Dearg top, and got full height run on skis to Loch Etchachan shores.- : D

Several good lines of snow still available, and with cold nights they are skiing quite well. Firm base under softening surfaces and not sticky.

HTH

hjborr at btinternet dot com

Skinned from Feshiebridge up Allt Ruadh then onto Meall Tionail to Meall Buidhe and final Sgoran Dubh Mor, returned by much the same route, with fine runs down from summit and Coire na Cloiche.
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Clear blue skys. No wind. Very cold, -14C inside tent at Feshiebridge at 6am.

Best snow conditions in years. Fully cover on all aspects, allow skis to used for whole route. Wind slab on westerly and southern aspects.

Solo trip

nickbroon at gmail dot com

Cycled up the snow covered track in Glen Quoich to the trees, then walked for 10 minutes. Skinned up from just above tree line onto An Diollaid and onto Beinn a'Bhuird. Headed over the South top as visibility was very limited, then skied roughly SW off the summit, getting to within 5 minutes walk of the bikes.

Blue sky and calm to being with, but mist rolled in as we got higher, and visibility was very poor from about 950m. Noticeable westerly breeze meant clothing was hoaring up. Dropped out of the mist at a similar height on the descent.

Plateau area of the mountain coated in rime, although not quite enough to prevent contact with rocks when descending from the summit. Below that, thin wind packed powder, although only enough for strips of snow to be skied. Lower down, bouncy snow covered heather which was a laugh. Overall, not very deep cover, but safe decent, particularly compared to the east facing corries that have monsterous, unstable cornices.

Scott, Kris, Dave, Lara