DUSTING OF SNOW IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Dusting of snow on Fiacaill Ridge and plateau

Cairngorm plateau

Fiacaill 'a Coire Sneachda

Coire an Lochain

Sun and snow showers

The Vent

Clear skies in the morning

Reindeer out for Christmas

The temperatures had dropped to single digits and there was some precipitation overnight in The Cairngorms. It was a lovely clear skies morning in Aviemore and up on the hill looked good. I took a wander into Coire an t-Sneachda and up onto the Fiacaill of Coire Sneachda. Just a touch of fresh snow abover1000m, only a sprinkling really. There were a few icy spots on the rocky ridge to the plateau but these could be avoided. At the top a big snow shower came over and sprinkled some more over the tops. The sun came out again and everything was looking lovely. A large group of students looked like they were heading across to Cairn Lochan, then saw me and changed their route to head down the Fiacaill. One of the group (the leader?) then asked a series of questions about getting down the ridge. I think some forward planning and a map may have helped them out. There was beautiful sunny spell mixed with some more light snow showers into the afternoon. A nice wintry day, finished off with Christmas songs blasting out of the cafe across he Coire Cas carpark along with the Reindeer on show. Christmas has come early to the Cairngorms it seems. We haven't even done the bonfire and fireworks thing yet. A very surreal day at times but generally a fab day and nice to see the snow. More forecast into tomorrow. The west may well have had a lot more snow too. Winter coming.