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Did anyone else see this strange bright thing in the sky today?
Looking over a flat Gunbarrel from the bottom of the Cas T-bar to the flank of the East Lady.
View down the Shelling portion of the Carpark Runs, snow making tonight to top up the Slot / Cottoms Way. Best route to Cas Carpark is via M2/Daylodge Run.
Blue sky outside the Ptarmigan Station!
Strong wind kept the top tows off in the morning, but the Ciste Tow and WWP opened later. No wind worries for Friday or Saturday.
Should be more of this on Friday and Saturday after an overnight top up on Thursday night into Friday.
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Thursday started with strong winds, which kept the top tows and West Wall Poma off in the morning and delayed the Daylodge Poma. However the wind gradually moderated and the clouds parted to reveal blue sky!
All uplift except the Fiacaill Ridge Poma is due to operate on Friday and there is no wind issues anticipated as a ridge of high pressure begins to build in on Friday. The blue sky of Thursday evening will not mean clear skies through the night as snow showers are expected to come in off the Moray Firth later in the evening and through the night, easing during Friday as pressure rises.
That means there should be a top up of new snow in relatively light winds by morning, though given the showery nature of the precipitation it is a case of wait to see in the morning how much new snow the mountain catches.
On Thursday it was a mix of firm / frozen base and areas of new windblown fresh snow. The recent groomers were more predictable but with anticipated better visibility and light than recently over the next couple of days, exploring could be well rewarded. There is extensive cover on the East Lady, but as can be seen in the photos the crest was rather wind scoured and hard, while further down towards the White Lady had a good covering of new snow.
Take heed of patrol notices and if going beyond the officially open inbounds terrain check the latest SAIS avalanche report.