Meet Report

12th to 14th February 2016 - Habitat, Ballater

On friday night we all had an exciting drive to Ballater in heavy snow which was to give a taste of what was to come.

On Saturday we woke up to a major dump of snow in the southern Cairngorms. The weather though for a change was forecasting sunshine nd lighter winds than of late.

Fiona & Mike took the ski touring option and had a very long day reaching the north top of lochnagar in very un-helpful snow. Hopes of a nice powdery descent were dashed and it took almost as long to get back down as it took to get up. From the same obscure parking Sylvian & Marcus also headed to Lochnagar to attempt Stuic buttress but were repelled by the amount of snow on the walk in.

Alison,  Fiona, Chris & Katrina headed out on their cross country skis to Glen Ey

Kenny went up the nearby Morrone in heavy conditions.

Alan H, Alison, Kate and others went up Morven, no news on the hidden visitor book at the summit though. (Everyone has too many layers on to identify from the photos!)

On Sunday it was a bit cloudier, Mike & Fiona had a great day of lift served skiing at Glenshee with minimal queuing and fantastic snow.

Alison & Fiona got up early to head to Lochnagar but an updated weather forecast prompted a change of mind. Alison instead had a good day on skis again in Glen Callater.

Kenny did a snowshoe assisted walk up Creag nan Gabhar reporting good snow conditions.

Alan H, Alison, Kate and others managed to miss the cloud by heading south to Mount Blair.

Chris & Katrina headed up the quaintly named Brown Cow Hill

Whilst climbing ambitions were thwarted by the deep snow the meet itself was great and the weather mostly played ball too.