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Helen gets her July turns in on the Ciste Mhearaidh.
Looking over the NE end of the Ciste Mhearaidh snowpatch, Helen heading over remains of some snowholes.
Setting off for the first run to tick July and month 33 on CairnGorm.
Alan gets a second July run in as the rain sets in, under a dark and threatening sky.
Still shadows, but ominous clouds building as we neared the Ptarmigan on the way up.
Dark clouds to the North, East, South and West encircling CairnGorm and closing in.
A warm, quite humid start to the day as we headed up past the Sheiling Tow.
Putting in new level cross drains on the Traverse.
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With an unsettled forecast for the coming days and a dry morning with clear visibility to the Summit, myself and Helen decided to go for it to tick off July and bag our 33rd consecutive month of sliding on CairnGorm Mountain.
It was warm, quite humid, but dry on the walk up to the Ptarmigan. A view of the rain radar made for worrying viewing, the 'Gorm was getting encircled by thunderstorms with a large one over Braemar pushing closer.
Rather than head to the Tor patch, we went straight for the Ciste Mhearaidh and got one run in before the rain set in. Thunder was rumbling in the distance, but the sky overhead was ever darkening. After hunkering down during a short sharp downpour we got in one more run, before taking advantage of a partial clearance overhead to make a dash for the safety of the Ptarmigan Restaurant.
The snow was fantastic firm and fast granular spring snow, with surprisingly hard base with little evidence of much melting going on despite the warm day. Managed to get my avalanche probe into a maximum of 1m 40 near the top, but not sure if it was to ground - the snow was so hard it wasn't possible to get it in more than 10cm in most places I tried before another rumble saw it quickly broken down!