First day for us on the new season snow. There has been a good fall for this early in November, right down to car park level.
We skinned up the car park tow path to mid station where the snow was much colder then up the cas, 105, traverse to the ptarmigan area. The ski down was excellent. The pistie beastie has been up and down a number of times giving a good base from the ptarmigan down the traverse,105 till the cas cross over then down the cas tow path and zigzags. We chose the home road to get back to the car park as it was pisted with firmer snow for 3/4 of the way, a bit scrappy at the end as you would expect but still an easy ski. Others were using burn side to get back down but there was no base here and the ground under the snow is soft.
A good outing for the first ski, well worth the effort and a bonus to have a pisted route all the way back to the day lodge.
Interesting to see the new layout of the servery in the restaurant. The soup is now in line with the hot food and a coffee machine where the soup used to be. No more jumping the queue when you just want soup but yes if you just want a hot drink and not food. Also having the soup with the hot food helps if you are buying a bunch of different meals, you do not have to go to two separate counters. Still no cold water dispenser though.
Coming up the Car Park tow path
The snow improves just below mid station
The large drifts on the traverse have been pisted out and there is a pisted route top to bottom using the 105, cas tow path, zigzags and home road.
Cas Tow path,
Home Road. A bit thin at the bottom but the piste machine has compacted the snow nicely making the most of what there is.
Before anyone asks, no they could not be running the lifts. It is early season snow, soft away from the tracks and the ground underneath is muddy, But great if you want to walk / skin up and earn your turns.
Some pictures on facebook later
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Graeme
Edited 1 times. Last edit at 16.55hrs Mon 7 Nov 16 by WindyMiller.
Attachments:
zigzags piste.JPG (189kB)
carpark tow path.JPG (211kB)
mid station.JPG (176kB)
Cas Tow Path.JPG (234kB)
Home Road.JPG (220kB)