The trip depended on Chris getting a day off work and when he called to say he'd wangled a day off in lieu of overtime it was game on.
We left the 'burgh at 6:25 am and immediately the windscreen washers froze on Shuzzy's truck so visibility wasn't great with all the salt on the roads (eventually we improvised a cycle drink bottle full of screen wash which we had to squirt manually onto the screen out the side windows!) The amount of snow between Stirling and Perth was incredible and boded well for the conditions at Cairngorm but as we headed further north on the A9 the snow quantities started to decrease not increase. Combine this with a lot of low cloud and we started to doubt the forecast for lots of snow and clear skies on the hill.
The A9 north of Stirling.
Lovely snow!!!!!!!
Once we got to Aviemore we were relieved to see more snow again and breaks started to appear in the clouds. The drive up past Glenmore was beautiful.
We had a bite to eat so that we could skip lunch and maximise our time boarding then waited in the surprisingly big queue for lift passes. Once we had tickets we jumped on the funicular railway up to the Ptarmigan (Site of the highest Postbox in the UK!!).
Shuzzy looking forward to getting in some turns
Coire Cas with a frozen Loch Morlich behind.
The view of Coire Cas from the Traverse.
Your mobile phone probably wouldn't work if this guy took a full day off (Shuzz busy troubleshooting on the phone to his work)!
All too soon it was time for the last run of the day (off piste down the East Lady).
The sun sets on a great day.
Even the car park was picturesque!
What a great day it turned out to be, thanks to Chris for driving in difficult conditions (his 4x4 was a godsend). Let's hope this is the start of another epic season.
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