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Looking up Coire na Ciste, need the wind from the South to blow snow down the Gully!
Looking up Coire Cas at dusk, looks white but not that much snow fell from the Northerly.
Even East / West fences like the Daylodge Poma not caught that much from Saturday night / Sunday.
There were a few people out on XC skis around various parts of Glenmore.
CairnGorm Mountain at nightfall from Loch Morlich.
Loch Morlich from the Ciste Carpark.
Ryvoan Pass from Coire na Ciste Carpark.
Good evening for snow making at least!
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With howling Northerly winds it was hoped a good amount of snow would reach CairnGorm even if some of the ski area was badly scoured, but alas not that much snow fell and it got scoured anyway! So we have a situation that it looks white and wintry all the way through Glenmore and up the mountain, but there isn't actually that much snow around sadly.
The feedback from those who've been over the back was that even there it's patchy and there wasn't as much snow as expected. The best tourers found was the machine made snow base on the Carpark Run which is now fully complete, but the T-bar uptrack requires more work (or snow from the right direction).
At present it is the mid-section of the T-bar track that is the issue and potentially if the whole thing can't be opened by the weekend, either the Carpark T-bar will load at the downhill section of the track for the Sheiling Run or the Sheiling Handle Tow will run - depending which uptrack is in better nick. Hopefully though the full length of the T-bar will be a goer soon, it certainly looks good for snow making at present.
It also would not require that much more snow and correct drifting to get the M1 Poma running and a route down the Traverse, mid Cas and Zig Zags, but it will need a good deal more to open up anything beyond that.
Until the Carpark Tow is fully open then the Lecht looks the better option with several full length main runs now open with great surface conditions with fence to fence machine packed powdery groomers.