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 White Lady is skiable again, but remember it's baseless (and unpatrolled / unmarked).
|  Top two legs of the Zig Zags can be used to avoid the bulk of the Gunbarrel again.
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 Gunbarrel is well pisted and pretty mellow, though a little bit worn right at the bottom.
|  Coire Cas has wide and deep cover still.
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 Looking down the Traverse to the Upper Cas.
|  Heavy snow and hail showers intermixed with Sunny spells on Thursday. Looking down M1 Poma to Traverse corner.
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 Ciste Tow, Fairway to right, Ciste Bowl to left.
|  View over the Ptarmigan Bowl, some nice wee lines possible on the Ptarmigan Ridge.
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 Features in the Ptarmigan Terrain Park
|  Ciste Fairway.
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 Features below the big bank of kickers in the Ptarmigan Terrain Park.
|  Top section of the Ciste Fairway.
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A day of bright Sunshine one moment, then heavy hail or snow showers the next on CairnGorm. Around 4 inches of snow last night, added to further today and it mightn't sound a huge amount, but it's been enough with some drifting to allow people to ski the likes of the White Lady for the first time in several weeks.
Officially the open terrain remains limited to the Top Basin, Traverse and Coire Cas, so if going off these prepared areas keep in mind nothing is pisted, patrolled or marked and where the cover is baseless sharp granite things are lurking!
Up in the Top Basin the cover is good and surface conditions excellent, but the Northerly headwind put a bit of a dampener on things up there on Thursday. Thus better runs were had by traversing out onto the Ptarmigan Ridge and picking slightly steeper lines back into the top bowls that weren't directly into the wind.
The Traverse thus had a tail wind and was fast with perfectly groomed fresh snow. Upper Cas is wide and deep with typical mid winter packed machine groomed snow, sweet turns on the groomers and off in the boulder field where some freshies were lurking. Some softening towards the mid-station, so Gunbarrel maybe a little firmer in the morning.
Though there was a closed sign stubbornly guarding the entrance to the Zig Zags, the top two legs and the link back to the Gunbarrel at the M1 load area is complete, so allows about 2/3rds of the Gunbarrel to be bypassed, though it has to be said it was smooth and well pisted.
Monday 4th May is closing day, so you only have four more days to get up for a slide! Play while you can...
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