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First Ski Mountaineering route.

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 peebles boy 17 Mar 2016
Given the forecast/lack of climbing partner/limited reports of snow softening even early morning, I've decided to finally get round to figuring out how to use the ski mountaineering kit i bought last winter!

Hoping to link with a day out on hills I've not been on before rather than the easy answer of going for Cairngorms tour. Looking at a round of the 3 Munros NW of Newtonmore - Carn Dearg to Carn Sgulain to A'Chailleach.

Is this a good idea for a first attempt? Most of the day appears to be above the 800m mark so hoping amount of snow won't be an issue, and a lot of it is flat/undulating so give me opportunity to get used to things on easy ground. If all goes to crap I can drop off the hills easy enough at any point so not overly committing either.
Thoughts?


 Mark Bull 17 Mar 2016
In reply to peebles boy:

The Newtonmore 3 wouldn't be my first choice in current conditions: a very long walk in to Carn Dearg, terrain on the plateau that's very flat for AT gear and likely to have bare patches, and if the snow is soft you can end up not getting any speed at all on schusses. I'd go high: the classic Macdui round, or maybe up from Glen Feshie if the descent gullies are still full, or Meaghaidh.
OP peebles boy 17 Mar 2016
In reply to Mark Bull:

Cheers Mark. Care to suggest a route in the Feshie area? Hoping to get away early tomo so will see a bit of what the snow cover looks like on the drove up the A9, will make and change plans a few times along the way I reckon!
Cheers,
Gordon
 Mark Bull 18 Mar 2016
In reply to peebles boy:

> Care to suggest a route in the Feshie area?

Cover on the plateau should still be good: if the vis is OK, you could start from Achlean and head over to Monadh Mor or Carn na Criche. The shallow bowl due W of Sgor Gaoith, Coire Ruadh off Carn Ban Mor and the 3 tributary gullies of the Allt Fearnagan (between Carn Ban Mor and Meall Dubhag) a.k.a. Tom, Dick and Harry, can all give good descents for the way back. Westerly aspects seem to have least cover at the moment, but you should be able to scope them out from the A9!
 Mark Bull 18 Mar 2016
In reply to peebles boy:

The 4th photo on here http://meagaidhblog.sais.gov.uk/2016/03/scorchio-rinse-repeat/ shows the cover on the Feshie hills and Moine Mor

 Snowdave 19 Mar 2016
In reply to peebles boy:

Feshie, Glenshee, cairngorm are all the best due to the main part being high & holding snow better, therefore the part which might not have enough snow is the walk in/up.

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