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