Today started of clear and cold but buy lunchtime the wind was picking up and the pea soup rolled in, Visibility became difficult and the light flattened.
The light fluffy snow of yesterday is starting to compress as you would expect but there are still plenty of untracked stashes to find.
As you would expect there were significantly more people today than yesterday but the lifts coped very well especially when the Ciste T-bar opened it took the pressure off. By mid afternoon it was back to skiing directly on to the lifts, a difference to the 5 lines at the M1 first thing in the morning. Even with the 5 lines they were very well behaved and self managed I assume mainly locals and CG regulars knowing what they were doing, they moved efficiently.
I was skiing with the chap that was repairing the Cas gantry, that is it complete now. I would imagine it will have to be inspected to get the ok before use but it also needs a bit more snow.
The boys pulled one out of the hat and managed to get the cas and top zigzag open for public use.I was surprised at this as it was still a bit sketchy in places and not the cas we have come to know over the last few years but well done guys getting it open. With the heavy traffic it was seeing it was causing a bit of ware so be careful if the forecast snow tonight does not come in.
Many folks were skiing to the car park at the end of the day. This is officially closed and the heavy traffic was causing issues. I would not recommend this route now.
The Lady opened but was thin in places and pretty firm, not the best ski and I avoided after one run.
Best runs, Top bowl, a bit thin at Ciste load area, Traverse wide and deep. M1 a bit tricky. cas fence line very nice.
Biggest mistake, Jeans bowl. Do not, I repeat, do not try this just yet. It looked nice but it was a mixture of fresh patches and ice, not pleasant at all.
Graeme
Lovely morning but that changed at lunch time
Looking over to the cas, fairly thin but officially open
Bottom of M1, watch out for the death cookies
Snow cannon running all day towards the zigzags. M1 que in the distance not bad at all.
Ciste Fairway, a bit thin and narrow at the bottom
This year I am going to be posting most of my picture on my face book page. It is so much quicker to post there as they get resized automatically. It saves me over an hour on each post.So if you are interested head over to windymiller, it is open access so no need sign up, like or anything like that.
Edited 2 times. Last edit at 18.04hrs Sat 9 Jan 16 by WindyMiller.
Attachments:
Ptarmigan load area.JPG (206kB)
Cas Area.JPG (226kB)
M1 bottom.JPG (226kB)
Snow cannon.JPG (225kB)
Csite Fairway.JPG (205kB)