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View up the Ciste Bowl.
Carpark Runs at the split between the Slot, Cottam's Way and Burnside.
Burnside thin in places but easily passable at present, some scrapped hard areas.
Ciste Fairway is full width with good machine groomed snow.
Fiacaill run has good cover accessed via the Fiacaill Traverse from top of Cas Tow.
Ptarmigan Bowl in decent shape, but the Ptarmigan Traverse had a lot of death cookies.
View down the Ptarmigan Traverse, the new style fencing here means a lot more depth and width so hopefully this will last longer in spring like the bowl.
View down the Upper Cas from the top of the Run, wide cover out into the Boulder Field with a number of features in the Cas Shred.
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Top to Daylodge riding is on offer on CairnGorm giving 1650ft of vertical, but cover is thinner and narrower below mid-station, though Carpark Runs are easily passable.
Fresh snow has has improved surface conditions after the thaw / freeze cycle earlier in the week and significant new snow is forecast for Friday and Saturday. Expect quite challenging overhead with gusts to or above 50mph expected in heavier snowfall. Sunday though should be a cracker of a day on CairnGorm with the snow showers fizzling out and brighter overhead coming in with light winds and cold temps keeping the new snow really fresh.
There are some features out in the Cas Shred for those looking for Park features to hit.
Top Basin has good cover, but it will be very cold up there with low temperatures and high wind-chill over the next couple of days for beginners.
West Wall Poma did open briefly late afternoon, but only the West Wall Chair Run was open. Hopefully the M2 will catch some snow over the next couple of days, if it could re-open not only would it give a good long blue via the Daylodge Run, but would allow riding back to the Ciste Carpark via the Aonach Ridge which still has a base.
Thanks to OlderAlan for Thursday's photos. If you have been up please spend a few minutes to post a public report.