Looking at the Ptarmigan webcam (which seems to give the first clear view for well over a week!) ...

[www.cairngormmountain.org]

... and the fill of the snow fences in the background, the even depth up there must be at least 1.3m to 1.5m. I think that's about 3 times the snow depth one can usually expect in late April.

Yep..certainly over 1 metre of level snow. The east side of the Ptarmigan and Ciste bowl is ski anywhere...some winters this area is never in condition.
Busy, busy though...both upper and lower Cas carparks full and roadside parking down to about the link road....quite long queues at every tow [could have done with the Cas T-Bar to spread the load}. Have to say that it is terrific though.....bring the sunscreen...Spring really is king this season.

Kind regards

Olderalan

If you take some of todays weather predictions for next weekend as the truth don't panic if you couldn't make it to cairngorm this weekend as next weekend would be like a mid winter playground. There really is the realistic chance now of an incredibly cold northerly plunge for the time of year bringing frequent snow and sub zero temps.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 14.50hrs Sat 28 Apr 12 by maizybea.

Diinae get our hopes up now!

Yeah I know, please don't blame me if it goes wrong! Seriously though even if they do moderate I think Scotland and especially the highlands could be in for a few very cold and snowy days.

Hi

Spectacular day today at Cairngorm, and my first at Cairngorm this season. Everything that was open was brilliant, and some that were not open were also magic. Even the combat skiing along burnside at the end of the day was good!

Favourites for me were the east wall, coronation wall and the cas headwall. Along with quite a few others, I hiked up Cairngorm several times. Coire cas was un-pisted and a superb run.

One of my best days ever at Cairngorm.

Downsides:

It was very busy, and alot of (fairly good natured!!) queueing was required.

The penis in the red van who decided that the whole car park should enjoy his music was also rather tedious!

Pics: [www.veletron.com]

Nigel




Edited 2 times. Last edit at 19.22hrs Sat 28 Apr 12 by veletron.

I thought there was a warning to keep away from the Coronation wall, going up tommorrow will hike up.

Yes, there was, but loads of folks were doing it anyway. I left it a wee bit later see how it played out! The sun went in later on and it all got slightly firmer underfoot, so I reckoned it was OK. Snowpack seemed fairly well bonded all told, but I ain't no expert!

Lady was also a good run. Far better than the M1 which was fairly narrow/sketchy low down.

Nigel

Does the Cas have full cover? Seems strange they did not run the Cas t-bar and piste it.

Gunbarrel has stream visible, and uptrack alongside is narrow. Its also a bit flakey low down. If they could load from a tower up above the gunbarrel then I guess the rest of the CAS uptrack, and piste could be sorted. I don't know whether they can load from higher up. A ramp would be required to reach the t-bar!

I was more surprised that there was no attempt to run the WWP (even starting from a few towers up). Ciste gully sports a stream, but M2 and cutting right into the bowl (cant recall name) might have made a nice run.

Certainly a couple of extra tows would have made a huge difference to the queues. The Ptarmigan and Ciste T-bars suffered big queues, but these were more due to frequent breakdowns than the numbers trying to ski. The actual pistes were quiet - I had the lady to myself on several occasions.

Oh: Some Pics: [www.veletron.com]

Nigel

I think the biggest problem they have at the moment is that they laid off most of their seasonal staff earlier in the Month.

But I agree; it really wouldnt take much to get the Cas running with mid-way loading. I beleive they can deliberately de-rail a tower to bring the up line down to human height.

Pictures look amazing from today. So gutted i couldnt make it up there. Fingers crossed for next weekend maybe?

Coire Cas T-bar please!

will they run the cas tomorrow?

Veletron

What time do you think I will need to be there to guarantee a space in the car park?

Also, was the competition people given priority in queues today?

Thanks
Fluff