A delayed start on Friday due to high winds and drifting snow, but with the Link Road abandoned it was an easier battle for the snowploughs today.

Showers eased for the afternoon, just the odd light flurry with some quite bright periods. Light came and went a bit, but when it was decent the riding was enjoyable with some decent stashes of fresh snow and easy to hunt them out and know where the harder stuff was.

If the light or visibility is poor it will be a bit more interesting off the recently pisted stuff! Surface conditions are a mix of windblown fresh on a hard packed base, mostly it's firm grippy snow, but there are sections of icier stuff where a bit scrapped and polished.

The strong winds eased somewhat as the day went on, at least on the lower half of the mountain, but it was still gusting 50 at the top.

Some beefy snow showers have come through this evening and lots more are piling into the Northern Highlands, though it will be a case of seeing what morning brings in terms of finding out just how many showers make it far enough South to dump on CairnGorm. The expectation is that uplift will be restricted to the lower and mid-mountain at best for the first part of Saturday, but wind speeds are forecast to moderate as the day goes on.

It will be VERY cold though, -6°c mid mountain and -10°c at the Summit early Friday evening and with a strong and gusty wind expected the Wind Chill will be severe. Wrap up very well.

In case of any road/weather problems tune into MFR on 96.6fm from North of Drumochter or 97.4 from the North of Aviemore. More frequent updates on 107.1fm between 7 and 9. Photos by Winterhighland.