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 End of a fantastic early November weekend to start of the 2014 Season on CairnGorm.
|  Heading for home on the Carpark Run (to part way down Burnside!) as the light begins to fade.
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 Skiers on the top Leg of the Zig Zags, which were pisted but thin. Corners and bottom leg gritty.
|  Getting some late afternoon turns in on the fantastic early season snow on Coire Cas.
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 Drifts on the Traverse catch the last of the afternoon rays as Coire Cas falls into shadow.
|  Heading for the Traverse as the Sun goes down on the opening weekend.
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 Loch Morlich in the distance below CairnGorm, from the Ptarmigan Traverse.
|  Boarder heading to the Zig Zags via the Cas Uptrack.
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 Looking back up the Traverse mid-afternoon, the shadows from the new style fencing indicate another snow protecting benefit!
|  Fresh tracks in baseless powder on the M1 RaceTrack - some people will have the ptex candles out tonight...
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 Noticeably busier than Saturday, Ciste Tow was about 10min after lunch - but got very busy when a t-bar tangled a tower on the Ptarmigan Tow.
|  Great machine packed powder at the top of the Traverse.
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 Great weekend for learning a new snowsport, forgiving soft fresh snow and fantastic weather.
|  Top of the Ciste Fairway, machine packed powdery surfaces.
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 Early mist cleared to bluebird skies by noon, great afternoon for sliding or just spectating and taking in the views.
|  Looking over the Top Basin from outside the Ptarmigan Restaurant, Ptarmigan Ridge beyond saw some action.
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Day 2 of the 2014 Season was a mirror image of Saturday, starting misty like Saturday finished, but that burnt off before lunch to give a fantastic bluebird afternoon.
The Funicular provided access (and uplift for those prepared to combat ski/walk the lower slopes to get at the goodies on the Upper Cas). While the Ptarmigan and Ciste Tows provided the uplift for the officially open terrain in the Top Basin. The Polar Express made it's season debut in the afternoon, once the fitters had hanged the required gazillion poma buttons.
The Fairway, Ptarmigan Traverse / Bowl were pisted with quite quick but very forgiving machine packed powdery surfaces. Hero snow for those first turns of the season. Ciste Bowl was skier packed & during the afternoon people started to venture out onto the Ptarmigan Ridge in search of some fresh tracks and to catch the last of the afternoon Sun.
Traverse was pisted and in decent nick, which took you out onto the best snow of the day on the Upper Cas. Zig Zags pisted, but thin and gritty particularly on the corners and lower leg - but passable with care. It was either walk from there down the Home Road or combat ski as far as possible down the Carpark Run. It was with a bit of imagination possible to ski within a couple of hundred yards of the Daylodge bridge!!
CairnGorm is closed for snowsports this week, very stormy forecast for the week ahead and a marked overnight thaw expected in the early hours of Monday. Hopefully some of the drifts and packed snow will come through, it looks like a roller coaster of a week, so we'll have to wait and see what the weather brings.
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