The weekend of the 18th of March we had booked ourselves on one of the ski club (
ESTC) meets at Laggan, south of Newtonmore, in
The Cabin, one of Edinburgh JMCS huts. It had been quite warm recently so most snow had already disappeared. Well, at least on the east side where we live but The Cairngorms had still plenty!
On Saturday early morning we started at Cairngorm upper car park and skinned up Fiacaill a' Choire Chais. The weather forecast gave us negligible wind but very thick, low cloud. We were hoping that if we got high enough we would be above it. And we were right because when we approached the steep bit of the ridge, we could see the sun appearing. A few steps more and we were witness of a beautiful cloud inversion in the valley.
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| Skinning up Fiacaill a' Choire Chais through clouds ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Skinning up Fiacaill a' Choire Chais through clouds ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Above cloud inversion ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Skinning up Fiacaill a' Choire Chais in spring weather ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Skinning up the steepest bit of Fiacaill a' Choire Chais ©Fenfolio2016 |
After we took in the stunning scenery and soaked up some vitamin D, we headed towards Cairn Lochan, back into the thick cloud. It was constantly changing so it didn't last long until the sun was back again. Initially we planned to skin further to Ben Macdui but most of us preferred to ski down the very appealing slopes here. The snow on our first run back to the saddle at Coire Cais was so good that we did this a few times!
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| Taking in the views towards Ben Macdui ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Making our way to Cairn Lochan ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Making our way to Cairn Lochan ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| View from Cairn Lochan ©Fenfolio2016 |
Then we skied down Coire Raibert and skinned up the top of Cairngorm,
skiing downhill on the groomed slopes back to the carpark. Down here there was not much snow left so we really had to circumnavigate carefully around the heather. Luckily
the Fiacaill ridge poma was not open and it still had lots of snow so we had the opportunity to ski
down here. Again, the snow quality was fantastic so I went first showing the 9 guys
how you really ski, haha!! It was the perfect last run of the season.
On Sunday, we made a walk to A'Mharconaich, one of the mountains along the Drumochter Pass. Although
I could still feel my muscles from the day before, it was great to be out again and walking through the snow patches.
It has been a fantastic winter season. Now it's time for other sports like cycling and sea kayaking in hopefully some decent summer weather!
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| Walking up to A'Mharconaich ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Descending from A'Mharconaich ©Fenfolio2016 |
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| Me being happy! ©Fenfolio2016 |
