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Mugs Alley still complete but narrow with a few holes, so not suitable for novices. Old Mugs Alley is much easier back to the Cafe.
Plateau Poma stilling going for access on 2nd May.
Dumping it down in the afternoon showers, these are forecast to continue to come in bands through the night.
Ski Patrol heading up at the end of the day as another beefy convective snow shower comes through.
Looking down the Wall which was giving fast turns on granular spring snow.
Still good depth in Ski Tow Gully.
Below the Haggis Trap on the Main Basin.
Looking up the Happy Valley narrows from Mugs Alley.
Wide continuous cover across upper Happy Valley and the Main Basin.
Looking across the Main Basin to a shower over Rannoch Moor.
Main Basin from the T-bar.
Wall T-bar still hanging in there in early May and just as well as the gusty winds around the showers put the Cliffhanger off.
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A day of bright spells, then from mid afternoon beefy convective snow showers that are coming through in bands. That is set to continue through the night and the temperature is dropping sightly with some of the heavier showers now of snow to the base of the Access Chair and all falling as snow from the Plateau up.
Given the showery nature of the setup not possible to give a precise figure for snowfall but mesoscale model data suggests totals from 1 to 4inches, with a few mountains seeing more. Question is just where the showers will hit.
Fresh snow on a groomed and skier packed base on the upper mountain giving more winter than spring like riding on Wednesday, while the snow was more granular spring snow mid-mountain but it most definitely wasn't sticky as the snow was pretty quick all over the mountain.
Canyon was a blast, providing you don't mind the bumps, good fast granular snow. The Wall Crossover was probably the pick of the middle runs today, fairly smooth fast granular snow while Happy Valley was fun up top, good width to lay out some big turns on the quiet slopes before things steep and bumps appear going through the Happy Valley narrows.
Plateau Poma still going for access and from the top of the Poma you can reach the Cliffhanger and Wall T-bar via Mugs Alley, or the Plateau Cafe via Old Mugs Alley (best to head towards foot of the Coire Pollach Tow but staying as high up as the snow allows and then sharp left and a bit of momentum to get up the incline to the cafe).
With the spells of snow over the past week it is possible for skiers to make it over the summit path to the Spring Run and Flypaper Bowl areas, boarders can cut through the Rock Garden and Rannoch Glades on snow.
Saturday is the Macavalanche mass start downhill mountain bike race, if weather and conditions play ball the plan is for the mass start to be in the Main Basin around 3pm. Unfortunately the forecast is not looking so good for Saturday just now, with drizzly showers and low cloud bases, but it's quite a fine line between being driech and much brighter so fingers crossed the forecast improves.
Very early indications for the holiday weekend favour Sunday over Saturday and Monday looks the most promising at this stage, warm, dry and bright with light winds under a ridge of high pressure pushing up from the South.