CairnGorm Mountain // Wednesday 12th December 2012
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Carving up the 105, machine groomed loose dry snow.
Traverse is already in motorway mode, the fence is 1.65m high.
Skier on Coronation Wall heading for the end of the Traverse.
Looking out the Ptarmigan Ridge from top of the T-bar, nice moderate off-piste here.
View down the Ciste Bowl, nice turns for getting the ski legs working again.
The new M2 Southern Extension... pisted marked line to skiers left of the WWP as opposed to using Fairway.
Coire na Ciste detail on the new giant piste sign at the Ptarmigan Restaurant.
Overview of the new giant piste sign and map outside the Top Station.
View up Coire Cas from the middle merge from the 105.
Upper Cas riding like a very shallow pipe, couple of slick patches just above Gunbarrel.
Looking down the top Zig Zag to the pisted Fiacaill Crossover.
M1 RaceTrack in good shape out by Horizon Road, seen from top Zig Zag.
Techno Alpin T40 doing it's thing at the top of the Sheiling Trainer Tow.
Snow making on the lower Zag. All Zig Zags and link to M1 in great shape thanks to the T40s.
Blowing snow down the side of the Gunbarrel to improve link to M1 and middle station.
Afternoon sun clips the Summit of CairnGorm as a boarder heads down Burnside
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Report
Another beautiful day for being in the mountains, an early haze above the tops burnt back to reveal increasingly blue skies on Wednesday and one more fine day is forecast for Thursday before a big storm system slams in during Friday.
If you can get up Thursday, even for half a day it's well worth it. The mountain is riding beautifully and kept hearing how surprised people were with the surface conditions given the weekend thaw/freeze. The fresh snow has helped, but on the whole the base underneath is firm, but grippy rather than icy hardpack.
The Top Basin is in great shape for less experienced riders and those getting their ski legs warmed up for the new season. There is also some good moderate off-piste on the Ptarmigan Ridge.
Mid mountain there are good options for early intermediates taking on the Traverse and Zig Zags (which are in great shape in part due to the continued snow making with the new T40s), and for more advanced riders on the M1 and White Lady. Some icy patches on the lower M1 RaceTrack, a better run can be had exiting via Horizon Road to the 105 or Zig Zags.
Coronation Wall was seeing some action on Wednesday, but cover is quite thin so be careful here. Going the other direction the M2 and Daylodge route to the bottom is open for more experienced skiers, upper M2 and Daylodge good, but the middle part of the route has some slick and narrow bits on the steeper pitches of the M2.
Overyonder and the WWP uptrack are complete and the winchcat was working on this in the afternoon.
The lower slopes are in fairly decent nick for so early in the season with easy riding back to the Daylodge level. Full Cas side vertical is on offer. Photos by Winterhighland.