Waking up in the vans in the ski station car park, I was quickly told by my good lady she would not leave her sleeping bag until i had turned the van on and it was warm in the van.  It was -12c and she probably had good reason.

The day had started with such a huge promise, the forecast was good and the dawn was reflecting this.  So we all got ready (Lara, Scott and I) and headed up to try for the fourth time to ski to up Ben Macdui (the UK’s 2nd highest )

Above is Lara setting of climbing up the Coire Chais ridge.  The weather was glorious and the views were stunning, we had high hopes for the day.  As soon as we got onto the plateau the cloud came in…….

We thought there goes the fourth attempt and lara used a select view words that made Scott blush.  The prospect of navigating across the plateau in a white out never appeals, so we decided to go and ski Raibert’s Gully down to Loch Avon, this is quite a famous ski descent.  It did not fail to please, fresh light snow and no tracks.  It was awesome, it was also Scott’s first gully skiing.

Above is Lara hammering it!  Once at the bottom it was either a long walk around or climb back up the gully.  we decided to climb back up, I had never skinned up a gully before – I don’t think I will again either, three steps and kick turn, three steps kick turn.  Was slow and rather painful.

Once at the top the cloud had gone, back to the original plan.  So we started to hot foot it across the plateau with Macdui firmly in our sights!!!!!

To get there it was rather painful, it was false summit after false summit.  But after what seemed like an eternity we finally got to the top, and very pleased we were too.  It was the first Munro I have been to that we could sit and admire the view and actually warm up.  The view was glorious (see the pano pic in the gallery) and I was trying to work out what all the hills were, Scott said there used to be a table with all the mountains marked on it.  I then realised I was standing on it!

Scott’s feet were starting to show the effects of ski boots and was swearing at then.  The decent was rather long as well, finishing off with a fast blast down Lurchers gully back to the car park.  Very happy and tired we found a pub and celebrated.  It ended up messy

Sunday we woke up again, same routine, I started the van before my good lady would even consider venturing out side the safe warmth of her big sleeping bag.  The weather again was amazing.  Today was more about finding some powder than getting somewhere.  4 of us set off (we found a friend randomly in the pub and we skied together).  We Skinned up Fiacall Ridge and drop into the SW face into Coire an Lochain.  We found a huge face with fresh snow and was brilliant

From here we skied around back into Coire an t-Sneadcha andskinned up onto that ridge (we did a lot of climbing this weekend) from here we had the run of the weekend, a long steep ride down into the Coire.  Lara was the hero and her powder carving clicked!

This was it for the day.  We skied down to the car park, totally amazed at the weather and snow conditions we had had over the last two days.  This was definitely the best weekends skiing I have ever had in Scotland.  We both sat at work today emailing each other how good it was and excited for more.

All the pictures can be seen here