Good weather winter climbing and skiing

Since the slight thaw on Sunday conditions have been getting better and better. Today the cloud lifted and the sun shone. All the crags in the Northern Corries are pristine white with rime ice and there is a fair build up of hard and crusty snow around the base of the crags.

Generally the snow is firm enough to support your weight though under the hard crust the snow is very powdery. Care is needed on steep snowy ground as it is easy to dislodge large slabby areas of snow.

We were surprised by the amount of rock fall over on the Fiacaill ridge side of the corrie with several small A4 folder sized junks being dislodged from above so extra care is needed when digging stances and hooking blocks...!

Up on the plateau the snow cover looked good for ski touring with nice fresh silky snow drifting over a hard base.

Cairngorm Mountain are now running a few of the T-bars as well as the funicular for skiers.

I'll upload another YouTube video tomorrow showing the climbing on Fiacaill Buttress, Invernookie and Belhaven...!