The last two days Mike and I have been out in the Glen Shee area with a Falkirk Community Trust Outdoors combined ski touring and walking team of Anna, Jenny, Lesley, Nicola and Norrie. On Friday Mike and the skiers skinned up Carn an Tuirc and descended to Loch Callater on soft thawing snow. Norrie and I walked in to Loch Callater via Creag nan Gabhar and after dumping some gear in the Callater Stables bothy we walked up Jock’s Road and round to the summit of Tolmount before returning to the bothy. We’d carried tents and bivvy gear, but there was no one else at the bothy, so we were all able to have a pleasant night inside.
Today we awoke to bright sunny conditions, low winds and an overnight frost, which had firmed up the snow and made for much easier walking and skiing conditions. The skiers reclimbed Carn an Tuirc and found some excellent conditions for a number of descents, before skiing out to the road. Norrie and I headed over Carn an Tuirc and Cairn of Claise before descending via the first part of the Sron na Gaoithe ridge then dropping down to the Allt a’Garbh Coire. A beautiful blue sky day today with excellent ski touring and walking conditions and lots of teams out enjoying the snow. There are still some large cornices and these need to be considered in route choice on thawing and sunny days.
