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Red Sky at Night?
Can still ride into the carpark via the low level Black Access Run and the bottom couple of hundred yards of the downhill track.
Still lots of low level options of Creag Dhubh beyond the Black Access run, snow was firm to hard but grippy late Saturday.
Beginner Rope Tow area in good condition and the dry slope is also snow covered at the base for learners, but light winds expected.
View down on the Carpark from the Darkside of the Access Chair, firm grippy base with some loose surgery stuff on top.
In the narrows of Happy Valley, good pisted snow on a firm base.
Top of the Main Basin and upper Tows.
Rannoch Button doing it's thing in the afternoon - eliminated queues pretty much up top, but Button only suitable for good skiers.
The queue for the Wall T-bar about 2pm!
Rannoch Button meant little if any wait for the top tows on Saturday afternoon.
Mugs Alley has good cover on all the options, looking over to the Canyon beyond the Cliffhanger Chair.
Looking up the Plateau Poma to the Spring Run. Roma was the only queue of note in the afternoon.
The banana shaped gully of the main Black Access Run is firm, but quite grippy - still good sport with reasonable edges.
Someone looks like they're here for a while...
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A high level haze moved over late morning making the light a bit flat for a time after a perfect bluebird start first thing, but the skies were clearing more by dusk so it could be a pretty start bright on Sunday above any inversion mist that might form tonight.
There is still summit to carpark riding giving 2400ft of vertical, though there are some thin and worn bits to look out for on the bottom third of the low level Access Runs now after a week of heavy use. Red run has quite hefty bumps in places and the odd icy patch lower down, Black has some small bumps and though firm was quite grippy late Saturday and still a good blast for more advanced riders with reasonable edges.
Up on the mountain surface conditions will probably vary a fair bit over the coming days as inversion layers shift around, with very dry air above the inversion positive temperatures doesn't necessarily mean softening snow. But the groomed stuff is coming up pretty well and on the whole it's firm, but grippy rather than a really hard packed base.
With the Access Runs still skiable and the Rannoch Button operating in the afternoon queues in the afternoon were notable mostly by their absence. The only queue of note that persisted was the Plateau Poma but it wasn't too bad, and the impatient and fit can be at the Plateau Cafe in little over 5 minutes!
Looks good for Sunday, hire was busy so arrive early or try to hire off site. If you are staying on site hire is open Friday and Saturday evenings till 6.30pm for getting kit for the following day.
