Out on a High

The cracking Easter Weekend gave John & Ann their final and greatest ski day of the season. Feeling a bit tired after the greater traverse of the Grey Corries the day before, we dug into the wallet for lift passes at Nevis Range. Gearing up we met ex-AMC members Dave and Catherine, who were enjoying kiddie freedom thanks to the grandparents. 

Bit of early morning piste action with Dave and Catherine

We had a few runs on piste with them just to get everything loosened up but it had been a chilly night and it was all a bit too icy. That made us set off earlier than planned for the trip over to Aonach Beag while the snow softened. Almost complete cover soon got us to the summit, and from there we headed east to have a look at Summit Gully. Never having skied into that corrie before, and never having used the new guidebook, we were a bit unsure of how the grades would look in reality.

 

East Face of Aonach Mor

View across to Ben Nevis

Looking down Summit Gully

Initially we had thought this might be a bit too hard, but looking down it in perfect snow conditions we decided to go for it. As it is east facing the sun had been on it for a few hours, leaving it soft with just a bit of crunchy left in it. The run fully lived up to its 3* rating and gave us our first real taste of steep Scottish off-piste.

 

Fantastic situation to ski in

Summit Gully goes down right from above Ann's head

As the angle eased we cut out right and did an excitingly icy traverse over to Stob an Cul Choire to get another run in. After a warm and sunny first lunch on the summit we tackled The Far Side. Nothing like as steep as the previous run, but very pleasant open skiing and we made it almost down to the Braveheart Chair. Despite it supposedly being closed it was working and really quiet, so we had a good few runs, again on fantastic snow, before traversing back round to the main ski area. This had softened nicely and it looked like everyone else had got bored as we virtually had it to ourselves. A full run from the summit to the bottom of the goose finished off one of our best ski days and seasons ever.

Proof that the Braveheart Chair does run