John, Emanuelle, Alan and I had a great day out ski-mountaineering with Falkirk Community Trust today. I’d been on the Tarmachan Ridge earlier in the week and new what snow conditions were like, so we headed to Meall nan Tarmachan.
A twenty minute walk took us from the minibus to snow patches on the East face, which we were able to link together for some steep skinning to gain the higher bowl. We skinned up through this and eventually had to don crampons and put skis on our back for an easy gully that lead to the North-East ridge, which we followed to the summit.
A short walk from the summit allowed us to ski excellent spring snow towards Meall Garbh. From the col a traversing descent on the North side of the ridge allowed us to ski the bowl immediately North of Meall Garbh, which gave a superb descent to around 700m. After skinning back up we skied the gully on the South side of the col until we were able to traverse around to the col between Meall nan Tarmachan and pt. 923m. From here we were able to access the bowl on the East face, which gave another good descent finishing via the line of our initial skin up.
The snow on the South side of the hills and below 750m was soft and heavy. Above 750m and on the North and East side of the hill the ski-ing was on great spring snow, The turf on the ridge and high in the shade was very firm. Fresh South-Westerly winds, no precipitation whilst we were on the hill, good visibility and some sunny spells made for an excellent ski-mountaineering day.
