UKC

Hi,
Am in Scotland all next week - haven't been up since Xmas. Fancied touring around and doing some routes maybe couple of night in a bothy - wondered about good aresa with climbs and snow in nick to ski in and climb. About IV or V is good for us. Any ideas/tips around Cairngorm plateau or elsewhere.

Thanks in advance

In reply to Fat_old_climber:

Obscure but still loads of snow in the glenshee area and some fattish looking ice(no expert on the ice I'm afraid but snows nice).

http://www.prog99.com/Winter%20Sports/Carn%20an%20Tuirc%20-%20Y%20Gully%20-...

In reply to Fat_old_climber:

I haven't been up recently, so I don't know what the snow's looking like. But when the big freeze was on, I had a suuperb day walking up Sgor Gaoith from Glen Feshie and skiing back down. With care you could probably ski from the head of Gleann Einich, traversing across to the base of one of the routes on that side of Sgor Gaoith? This would certainly get you a route to yourself.

But as I say, I don't know where the snow-line is just now. The other thing that might be worth a try, and would keep you high, would be to walk up Braigh Riabhach, then ski across to Garbh Coire Mor and do one of the routes there.

Obviously avalanche and cornice hazard might make either of these suggestions completely impossible. I emphasise that I am NOT saying this on the basis of a recent look at conditions.

In reply to Fat_old_climber:
Loads of skiers around on Ben Macdui on Saturday, conditions looked good across the whole plateau. And there were tracks in the Lairig Ghru on Sunday that looked to have been made the day before; continuous snow patches above about 850m and again the whole plateau from Braeriach to Cairn Toul was deeply covered.
Plenty of snow and ice around on Braeriach, don't know what the routes were as I didn't have a book with me.
Corrour bothy would make a good base though you'd have to walk most of the approach.

Of course the rain and snow since then will have made a big difference!

In reply to Toreador:


What's the cover like in the Lairig Ghru? Can you ski down the Taylor's Burn off Macdui all the way or is the snowline too high?

Iain

In reply to IainMunro:
Not sure where Taylor's Burn is, but there were lots of gullies that were continuous from top to bottom. I'll try to upload some photos later.

In reply to Toreador: Big dump in progress by all accounts.

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:
I've uploaded a photo (awaiting moderation) - if nothing else it'll give an indication of which areas of snow are sitting on top of old snow and which on top of bare earth!