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The Gunbarrel continues to fill with the drifting snow, fairly flat and excellent machine packed powder Wed.
| Ptarmigan Bowl has reasonable cover, but the wind was scouring some patches down to the rock solid base. Thus a few icy patches.
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The White Lady is superb, mostly wide with beautiful snow. Has been pisted out to several machine widths along the fence line, with windblown fresh on top.
| M1 SideTrack is complete with nice snow, but a couple of thin/narrow bits where scoured. Turn right under funicular for the White Lady.
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People heading for the White Lady via the M1 SideTrack. Lady is in good nick to the mid-station.
| M1 Poma thinking about misbehaving, but it didn't stop once this afternoon!
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Looking up from the M1 loading area over the Funicular to the White Lady, air filled with blowing snow from above.
| Trainer Tow (Polar Express!) has a fence depth of snow in it's area, great for beginners, but a tad Baltic this afternoon!
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Drifting snow blows into the burnside fences on the Carpark Run, this is the best way down the lower slopes.
| Ciste Gully from the Ciste Carpark. The Gully continues to fill, still a few holes near the bottom, but it's complete to the level of the Poma. Need more snow to get out to it though.
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A blue sky morning faded as cloud started to build from lunchtime, the wind picking up steadily through the afternoon as well heralding the approach of an overnight storm.
Top to Daylodge riding is on offer with the full 1650ft of vertical available on the Cas side. With the Carpark run in reasonably passable nick the Funicular was not middle stopping which helped speed up full length runs from the bottom.
The best riding is to be found on the middle slopes, where the best accumulations of windblown powder are to be found. Pick of the day by quite some margin was the White Lady which is mostly wide on the top half and decent enough back to the middle. M1 SideTrack also pretty decent snow, but some thin bits where the wind has been scouring the most exposed bits.
Though narrow on the upper section the Cas and the 105 have excellent machine packed powder, sweet turns with the strong tail wind. The Cas Gunbarrel is quite flat now and filling well with the continued drifting, with the Zig Zags and Chicken Gully also both pisted. Thus a good length cruise route from top via the Traverse, 105 and GB, ZZs or Chicken Gully.
Return to the Daylodge via the Carpark Runs, best option is the Skiers left of the 3 fenced slots on the Sheiling area, cutting above the diagonal fence and passing right by the bottom of the Sheiling Tow, then down Burnside which has been pisted. The cutback to the Carpark T-bar looks tempting, but is rather scratchy.
Heavy drifting late afternoon, snow is moving around so some areas will improve, but some might be scoured. More snow expected tonight, though it will get very wet for a time. If you have been out please send photos to pix2009@winterhighland.info .
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