Bring the shades and the suncream, Highland Scotland is set for an early taste of summer on Saturday with temps into the 70s°f in the Glens. So it's set to be a cracker for taking in some action from the Vans Dawn of the Shred 5 in the Ptarmigan Terrain Park.
Despite the mid-week thaw there is still top to middle riding offering up 1300ft of vertical.
Soft snow in the Top Basin on a firm base, was slightly slow with a NW headwind, but still good cover in the Ptarmigan and Ciste Bowls. Ptarmigan Traverse is quite narrow, but a reasonable depth.
Best snow on Friday was mid-mountain, the Traverse, 105 and Cas was good fast granular spring snow. Coire Cas is in the best condition of the open runs with the Gunbarrel still largely flat and full width.
White Lady is skiable via the 'Skirt', but broken below the Elephant Fence for a short bit and some hoofing is required to get onto the top of the Run. Some steeper turns though, but beware of the stream underneath. Same goes for anyone with touring kit venturing into the Ciste Gully!
Still decent top to middle skiing on the whole, but top of the Traverse is narrow until the M1 split. Cracking weather conditions expected for those prepared to put in some leg work / touring to go exploring.