Surface hoar and pisted trails

With lows of below minus 20 in the Highlands the temperature have not risen much above freezing since last week. The snow is still unconsolidated and powdery in most areas and there is a high avalanche risk in places.
The Cairngorm Mountain ski area is open with a wide covering of powder snow and a high avalanche risk off-piste.
Away from the high tops the ice on many low level waterfalls and seepage lines on road cuttings is getting fatter :-)
At low level you can ski almost anywhere on Nordic touring kit, so we were out on the local cross-country trails yet again.
At Slochd the skis were gliding well on the already pisted upper loop. Today we conpleted the lower circuit and in contrast to Monday the skis were sliding well on the thick layer of surface hoar that's growing fast and likely to affect the future snow stability in the mountains...