Towards Sgairneach Mhor, Drumochter. With winds forecast to be over 60mph options were limited so we travelled hopefully towards Sgairneach Mhor. We had a brief view of the mountain from the A9. There is relatively new bridge at 490m which helps access. We gained the Eastern ridge near the 758m spot height. There were some apparent discrepancies between our compasses and our GPSs however we resolved these before deciding that if we did gain the summit skiing back down the ridge in visibility of a few metres in the gale was not best. As it was there was an invisible snow edge to fall off right beside us at 740m. We skied back to the bridge and then up the valley for 2km. Our group was one of four out from the Eagle Ski Club meet at Laggan.

Very strong wind with significant wind chill. Freezing at road level.

Of the access points only the top of Drumochter pass looked favourable. The Coire Dhomhain valley track was well covered although with rising temperatures on Sunday this will be deteriorating. One party went up Geal Carn (Monaliath) from Garva Bridge in better visibility carrying skies for 100m

Eagle Ski Club Party

scotsec at eagleskiclub dot org dot uk

Meall nan Tarmachan from the north via Creag an Lochain 842m. Although there were snow patches near the road we carried to 650m. The navigation between the 842m top and the main mountain was intricate. Working our way through the small crags we made the final approach to the top by the line of the summer path. The forecast was for clearing skies in the afternoon however we saw only a fleeting glimpse of blue sky at the summit. We descended steeply west of north in knobbly terrain before opening out onto a long wide slope of about 27 degrees with good cover of fresh snow with no ice of substance to bother us. At about 800m we took a descending traverse NE and N before deciding to ski down to the Hydro track at 550m and then walking 1km back to a car we left there on the way up.

Heavy rain for an hour of so in the morning followed by a bit of snow and drying up later. It felt cold.

There had been snow loss from lower levels since Saturday and some overnight fresh higher up.

Eagle Ski Club party

scotsec at eagleskiclub dot org dot uk

Faced with the prospect of a particularly wet afternoon we chose Meall Buidhe to the north of Loch an Daimh off Glen Lyon aiming to beat the weather to the top which we did. We had a 45 min carry to snow at 650m. With the impeding downpour we didn?t take advantage of supplementary runs and retreated the direct way we came. On photo B the white snow triangle left of centre is the north side of Creag an Lochain 842m. This was to be our ascent route to Meall nan Tarmachan on Sunday. Still on photo B the mountain right of centre is Beinn nan Oighreag 909m. I had not noticed this one before however it looks a worthy ski mountain. We checked out the snow on Beinn Heasgarnich from the top of the Hydro road however wasn?t looking that good. The Bridge of Balgie road was open. The south side of Bhein Ghlas and Meall Corranaich looked pretty bare. We stayed at cottages on the Innerwick Estate which was most agreeable

The weather broke more or less when we reached the summit which gave us cloud for part of the ski down. Freezing level was about 900m. We did have some atmospheric black clouds.

New snow on an old base blown to expose ice on some of the ridge.

Eagle Ski Club party

scotsec at eagleskiclub dot org dot uk

Glen Turret reservoir car park 300m to Coinneachain 787m

Cloudy, 7deg, light wind

Soft, first snow disappearing into cloud base, 10 mins walk, into cloud, snow disappeared! 5 mins over heather to continuous snow, following the landrover track. Still 80% cover on top.
Surprised to get any skiing at all, but guess most will be gone with tonight's rain.

Mark

North East ridge of Ben More, and descent of the North side

Sunny, cold, some cloud.

Hard wind blown snow and some ice on the ridge, the ice was avoidable, nearly all rocks covered in a skiable rime.
Descent of the north face was good through variable snow, calling for a variety of techniques. Itwas possible to reach the forestry road on skis 400m above the road.
Poss/Users/nevis2_1/Desktop/DSC06183.PGibly not a good introductory tour.
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Iain C and Holly the skiing dog.

nevis2_1 at hotmail dot com