Wednesday dawned clear, cold and crisp on CairnGorm Mountain, -8°c at the Summit and in Glenmore, around -6°c on the lower slopes. All with 4-6inches of fresh light powdery snow laid down overnight in next to no wind giving truly fantastic riding all over the mountain.

Simply beautiful and flattering packed powder corduroy on the pisted terrain, the M1 SideTrack was particularly nice for more experienced riders wanting to lay out some carves on the groomers.

For less experienced riders both the Top Basin and the lower slopes are in perfect condition, so there is superb riding for first timers to seasoned expert on offer.

The East Lady was hit first and hard by those in search of fresh tracks and though it quickly got tracked out, the snow gradually changed into creamy skier packed powder as the day went on, so was worth going back to again and again.

The Ciste Gully and East Wall provided a much bigger canvas on which to lay new lines and later in the afternoon slight drifting higher up meant fresh tracks could be found time and again. Further from the beaten track, dropping into Coire an t-Sneachda from as high as it's possible to hold a traverse on the Fiacaill Traverse opens up superb moderate slopes, but this could lose some of it's fresh onto the Cas side of the ridge with drifting this evening.

One thing to check out on Thursday is whether the Shuttle Bus is running, one is on standby after the Cas Carpark was filled to over flowing on Wednesday and if it's running it opens up a whole stack off options further out on the East Wall, the full length of the Ciste Gully and the Laogh Mor Return which should be piling up freshies on the slopes into Coire Laogh Mor tonight.

Leading edge of overnight snow just nudging into the 'Gorms as these photos were uploaded. More fresh lines for Thursday await.