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 The fenced low level Red Access run - lures you in at the top, still looking good below the halfway mark...
|  ...then you reach Carnage Corner! Top half good, bottom 1/4 thin but doable as its just gras, third 1/4 is horrid!
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 Great cover and decent base now at the diverge between Mugs Alley and Old Mugs Alley by the top of the Coire Pollach Tow.
|  Moody sky at the end of the day from the Red Access Run. Snow showers tonight into Saturday morning.
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 Rankin's Return is wide and deep, fantastic long green grade cruise for advancing early intermediates. An great way back from the Spring Run (seen behind skier).
|  Boarder on Rankin's Return. Lot of snow drifted from open Plateau last night onto Low Road and Rankin's Return.
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 Top Leg of Mugs Alley now has good cover, but for early intermediates, the Coire Pollach Tow offers lovely terrain with little or no queuing.
|  Boarder dwarfed by the windlips in the Canyon. Good fun in good visibility, but best avoided if you can't see!
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 Cliffhanger Chair queue was fairly small for numbers on the hill, Wall T-bar having snow makes a huge difference.
|  Going to be good sledging this weekend, wrap up well if coming Saturday as snowy and breezing, so significant wind chill.
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 Boarder rides the natural pipe wall crafted by the wind in Thrombosis Gully mid mountain. Lovely wind packed snow down the side.
|  Main Basin and Happy Valley wide and good snow, started wide groomed corduroy motorway for the early birds.
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 Top queue waxed and waned, usually not bad when the Rannoch Button was running. Uptrack is difficult on it though, please only experienced skiers on the button or bad things happen.
|  Laying out a turn on Mugs Alley heading for the Cliffhanger Chair.
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 Coire Pollach Tow doing it's thing.
|  Excellent machine packed powder corduroy down Coire Pollach beside the Tow, but little used line today - some nice rollers for a fair bit of air too.
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After over a foot of snow and heavy drifting through the week, with several StormBound days and a bluebird forecast for Friday it was always going to be busy for a mid-week and the main carpark was full with the overflow pretty busy too.
A spell of very strong NW winds in the early hours stripped snow from some locations and dumped large amounts of windblown snow in others. Thus the Low Road and Rankin's Return were superb, wide corduroy motorways for the early birds to layout some big turns on and warm up the legs.
Main Basin and Happy Valley good for more challenging blues. Spring Run was hard work this morning but as skiers broke down the wind affected snow it become one of the picks of the afternoon, with a fantastic groomed run out onto Rankin's Return to get back to the lifts.
There is excellent sport for all ability levels on offer once again. Snow expected later tonight, will ease to showers during Saturday with a moderate NW wind, occasionally stronger gusts in heavier showers. Overhead might be quite challenging on Saturday, but more fresh on the way. Winds due to ease and clouds clear for another bluebird day on Sunday.
Longest queues were a couple of spells when the Rannoch Button was off at the top, not sure how long as avoided the top until the button came back on, but timed waits at the Poma late morning and post lunch between 5 and 7 minutes on several runs. Coire Pollach Tow was often straight on, with minimal queuing.
If you require ski hire over the weekend arrive early - fitting equipment correctly takes time, and with many hiring being relative or complete new comers it takes a bit of extra time to get everyone sorted out with what they need. If you have your own kit and sometimes hire, definitely advisable to bring your own kit to all the areas as we approach and from Saturday 10th go into Half Term.
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