March ’21 Lockdown mission No. 6.

Snow overnight meant the car park was a bit slippy. The snow was continuing to fall and I had real doubts about parking the car. I decided to retreat back down the road and sat in the lay-by with views of the Blackmount to wait out the weather.

I returned to the ski centre car park after waiting 20 minutes for the sunny spells to make an appearance.
I walked up the track in the improving weather, passing a few couples skinning up. I didn’t put snow shoes on until I was level with the top of the chairlift. I was nearing Mugs Ally as I was overtaken by the first skier. The others caught up with me as I rested at the rescue hut.

It was a hard push up to ski tow gulley. There was a lot of windblown powder. I sought out firmer patches of snow, rather than sinking up to my knees which would happen occasionally.
There was a cold wind so on arrival at the summit I was quick to grab my insulated jacket from my bag.
I chatted with one of the couples. One was a split boarder, so I quizzed him about his gear.

Once I’d packed up my gear, I enjoyed the thick chalky nature of the wind-blown powder.
My bag certainly adds a bit of weight, so I have to lean back quite a bit I may board to keep the nose out of the softer snow.

On my second ascent, I quickly overtook the splitboarder I’d chatted to earlier as he was having some trouble with his skins. It definitely looks more efficient, but I had a much quicker turnaround when transitioning on snowshoes.

On my second run down I continued all the way down to the plateau. The weather was deteriorating.
It was forecast to turn nasty so I hightailed it back to the car by about 2 pm.