The summer solstice has now passed so it's time to get back to winter again, and where better to start than an end of season pilgrimmage over the back of CairnGorm of which is turning into an annual event. From when the lifts first opened in November, we have now had 8 consecutive months where skiing has been underway. Not bad for a nation where it "never snows"?!
6 of us made the trek under promising skies, with sunshine making an appearance on the ascent and at other times throughout the day. The Ciste Mhearad area over the back of the hill still held on to a reasonable cover of last winters snow, with sufficient variety of terrain to keep us amused for the day. We noticed we had an audience from the ridge above while we built and played around on a kicker, but we only found out at the end of the day that the kicker landing was right on a snowbridge (think repeated impacts) housing a warren of snowholes! Nobody was affected by it though luckily.
In terms of weather we only had a few light showers at intervals throughout the day, until the very end when monsoon weather started, so we made a quick retreat to the Ptarmigan Station, and found an alternative use for the hand-driers in the Ptarmigan toilets!
