Rowardennan to summit of Ben Lomond and return.

Hiked with skis on back from Loch Lomond to about 600m, skinned to within a few metres of the summit via south face of Ben Lomond and then decended down the south face to approx. 700m (with a small detour to ski a nice looking gully/stream bed) and hiked back out again.

Many bemused Glaswegian hikers! ;-)

Started out sunny at 10.30am became progressively more cloudy from the west until it started to sleet just as I left the Rowardennan carpark at 4.30pm

Freezing level probably somewhere between 600-800m

Snow started at about 500m. Skinnable from 600m. Ski decent became too difficult to continue at 700m.

Mixture of breakable crust with odd patches of powder and windblown hard pack on south face of Ben Lomond. Frequent areas of rimed-up tussock grass sticking through the snow pack on south face making ski descent difficult at times.

Simon (Rossi Scratch BCs)

smdonald_99 at yahoo dot com

Parked off A9 at 630763. Climbed up steep slopes beside waterfall to 650m, then easy angled snow filled gully to col between Meall 'a Chaorainn & A'Bhuidheanach Bheag. Skied on to ABhuidheanach Beg then A' Bhuidheanach Mhor, then east to summit of Glas Mheall Mor. From their skied back to first col and redescended gully. On skis all day after initial climb. Bumped into some walkers who wished they were on skis!

Good visibility. Lots of hot spring sunshine. Osscassional snow/sleet shower. Moderate to fresh wind.

Good snow in gully from 650m though a bit wet lower down and hard to get a grip on (Don't have skins). Used klister to get up. Once on plateau snow was drier and klister too sticky! Changed to red wax which worked well...though took a lot of scraping and corking! Happy days!! Once on plateau extensive even cover of fresh snow. Well worth the trip...though snow loss could be seen on lower slopes and some aspects in comparison to last weekend. Temp. on plateau probably about 2/3C.

A&J

a dot gormly at virgin dot net

Parked on A9 just south of Dalwhinnie. Climbed up steep slopes to Jean's Gully. Snow from 650m. Skied up easy gully onto plateau and then on to summit of A'Bhuidheanach Bheag. Easy gradients. Fence posts and visibility made navigation a cinch. Retraced same route back.

Fabulous views of surrounding hills! Odd squall coming through. Steady, cold wind...but not too bad. Freezing level about 700m. -2/-3 on plateau.

Dreamy! Odd icy patch but 90% 2 to 3 inches of powder over hard pack. Our kick n glide waxing skis worked well. If only all cross-country in Scotland was like this! Good cover for kms around. Hope it lasts 'til next w/e.

Alisdair & Janice

a dot gormly at virgin dot net