After a very early outing to the Cairngorm plateau in very poor visibility and patchy snow cover a couple of weeks ago it was time to try again with a good forecast and excellent snow. Linda Smith, Romain and I decided to ski in from the Victorian Bridge just short of Invercauld at Garbh Allt Shiel and head up towards Lochnager via the Stuic.
Up through the forest in deep fluffy powder in tracks made very neatly for us by another
party!.....and up out onto the open slopes leading up to the Stuic.
Crusty snow led up to the plateau but it was quite grippy for climbing up the final slopes to the top of the Stuic where we met another couple of skiers - the only people we saw all day. Fantastic having the whole of the Lochnagar plateau almost to ourselves.
Under clear blue skies but with a biting wind we skinned around across to the main Lochnagar summit which was completely buried under lovely powdery snow.
We left the summit and the lovely powder behind for a good but entertaining descent off the NW side of the ridge on deeply wind scoured snow but at least it was firm and sqeaky and took a very good edge.
Then finally back across the moor and a final swoosh down through the powder coated forestry tracks back to the car. A fantastic day out and 4 months of winter still to go!
Impressive. I'd forgotten what snow looks like when plastered on a mountain by 150mph winds.
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