Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Monadliath Ski

Last Saturday, as part of the Laggan meet, Ann & John headed into the Monadliath for a spot of ski touring. We went up Glen Markie from Spey Dam. Sadly the snow line was just too high so we had a few km to walk up the track until we could turn up Piper's Burn towards Geal Charn.

View west towards Creag Meagaidh. At least we didn't go up there.

Crossing the Markie Burn
Skis went on just after the stream crossing and the ascent went well until we got to around 650 m. Then the weather, which had been slowly deteriorating, got really wild and combined the plentiful spindrift with lots of fresh. By 750 m we could barely see our own feet and while we might have carried on had we been on foot (and forgetting the depth of soft snow to post-hole through), it was no place for skiing. Most of the descent was horrible, straight into the wind and total whiteout for much of the time. No seasick feelings but several falls into hidden drops. Snow was not too bad, but a bit crusty in places.
 
Emerging from the whiteout at the edge of the corrie

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