Day 13 of Scottish season 15/16. Decided to join Gareth and his daughter on a midweek visit while the weather was good. Thursday morning was bright and sunny, with a forecast to cloud over after lunch. On the drive up the access road I noticed tracks dropping out of the Creag Dubh chute. A very steep and tight rocky passage high above the the moor.

There had been a slight fall the night before and the wall amongst other spots were ready for slashing! I made sure I went straight to the wall and enjoyed some short but sweet turns on the steeper face. While ascending the t-bar, a huge lump of ice fell from one of the towers and hit me square on the head! Luckily my helmet took the brunt of the force. It felt it could have easily done some damage, leaving me slightly dazed.

The quality of snow was amazing and the wind lip down main basin provided further entertainment. Unusually the Spring Run was closed. Not sure why, but some of the slopes had icy patches. I can only imagine the same was true there.

After lunch I was hitting a few small jumps in Main Basin and dropping off the up track was going a bit too fast when I hit a kicker a bit early and landed 90° to the direction of travel which meant catching my heel edge and slamming backwards. I hit the snow with a crunch, a second hit to the head and some discomfort through my left arm. I shook it off, but remained a bit weary for the rest of the day.

The afternoon got gradually colder and visibility got worse as cloud moved in. We called it a day around 3:30. It was a great day and no crowds to deal with on a weekday.

The following morning I did wake to a bit of whiplash in my neck, definitely too many blows to the head I think.