Whoopee - Snow filled gullies...

The weather was a lot more settled today and for the first time for a few days it was possible to see the exact snow cover. In fact, it looked absolutely fantastic with all the north facing gullies and sheltered hollows completely filled with deep snow. As expected the tops and plateau looked a bit wind scoured. The storm force southerly winds and blizzards have really done the trick with all the north facing gully lines now completely filled.

In the Cairngorm ski area most of the middle runs looked to be complete with the East Gully, the Ciste Gully and West Wall looking especially good. Local skiers were making the most of today's more settled weather and were having fun descending the untracked powder in the Ciste gully. At least I think it was powder! The fact that many of the tows weren't working didn't seem to deter them though they might have had second thoughts when they reached the bottom...!

The White Lady and Cas gunbarrel have also been completely filled. For ski mountaineers and climbers returning from the plateau the Lurchers burn line has now been filled in.
The lower car park runs and Fiacaill ridge are actually filled with rock hard snow making an excellent base for the snow that's forecast for later this evening and throughout the coming week. On the downside whether the ski area will get the tows up and running quickly is another matter as it looked as though some of the cables are down or in need of maintenance.

Looking through the telescope it looked like most of the climbing gullies were banked up with snow and several of the popular ice lines looked good from our roadside viewpoint.
The snow seems to have consolidated remarkably quickly at 600 metres but whether this is case higher up on some of the climbs is doubtful. Certainly the gullies, scarp and cornice exits will require extreme caution especially as a lot more snow is forecast.

All in all it's an absolutely fantastic start to the 2008 winter season and the first time for a few years that all the main gully lines have been filled so early in the New Year.

Plenty of snow, good weather and winter climbers...

The Northern Corries were busy today with the easy walk into the main corrie good for catching up on the climbing gossip. Al and Kenny headed towards Aladdins buttress and Fi and I headed for the Mess of Pottage. It was hard work though as soon as we left the main track. The bonus though is that we had the crag to ourselves apart from one other trio to our right. The cliffs were very wintry though the ice up cracks, powder snow and rime made the climbing good fun but time consuming. Proper winter climbing and more akin to the conditions routes were being climbed in in the past! More details and photos on Fi's blog. From our vantage point we saw teams in Jacobs Ladder, Aladdins Buttress, Wavelength, Fingers Ridge and over on the farside the Fiacaill Buttress area looked very busy with climbers on the Seam, Invernoookie and the Belhaven Rampant areas. We heard later from Ruth and her partner that they had a good time on Sidewinder although Coire an Lochain was fairy quiet compared to Coire an t-Sneachda. On the plateau the cover looked good for ski touring with deep drifts in places. Back in the ski area it looked as though some of the runs had a fair buildup with winter skills groups making the most of the mid-station drifts to dig emergency snow holes! All in all a good start to the season.