Santa brought another 8 inches of fresh to CairnGorm Mountain during Christmas Day, bringing the 48hour total to a very sweet sounding 26 inches!

Fantastic top to bottom riding for all ability levels. The Top Basin is in superb shape and like all over the mountain that ego boosting dry machine packed powder 'hero snow' covers all groomed terrain.

With so much snow having fallen in light winds we're into a period of that rare ride anywhere cover on the mid and upper mountains with wide tracts of fresh snow between the main trails. While a lot has been tracked up on the Cas side, there's still areas with relatively few tracks and large expanses over in the Ciste that the potential need for a shuttle bus on Sunday could open up.

If the shuttle bus runs on Sunday, 2000ft of vertical will be possible, but check with patrol, esp for avalanche risk in the Ciste and on the East Wall which needs to be considered before attempting the Laogh Mor Return.

All runs to the Daylodge are complete, Fiacaill Ridge, Carpark Runs and the Daylodge run, with the Daylodge Poma hopefully coming on during Sunday.

This is the best Christmas period cover for a good number of years and another epic spell to make 2009 a memorable year for the right reasons, all the more so with Glencoe opening Monday. Forget the sales and retail parks, drop everything and head to the hills, this is too got to miss.