Nettle and I were out in the Cairngorms today on skis and foot. We skinned up from the car park keeping on the East side of Fiacaill Coire Cas to just before pt. 1141m. A short walk took us down in to Coire Raibert. Linking snow patches with short walking sections we were able to traverse around above Stac an Fharaidh and had an excellent ski descent to The Saddle. With skis on our packs we headed up the snow free ridge to A’Choinneach and with one easy ski section out to Bynack More whose ridge is also free of snow. Quite a long section of carrying, but a couple of new tops for Nettle.
We then returned to The Saddle ski-ing some good steep snow patches on the West side of A’Choinneach and climbed/skinned up via Ciste Mhearad to the top tow of the ski area.
From here we had an excellent ski down through the now empty ski area. We were able to ski all the way to the car park, but only just and I’m not sure how much longer this will be possible.
Cloud most of the day above 950m, with the odd break to sunshine. Light South-East winds, no precipitation and above freezing at all levels after mid-morning. Excellent ski-ing on spring snow.
