Access from Aberarder
4th March 2016
Aberarder Farmhouse, Sron a Ghoire in background
View on arrival at farmhouse as good as I got today – low cloud then developed and stayed around for most of the day.
Main path in to Coire Ardair – looking back towards Aberarder
In spite of lack of snow to start skis at the moment are still a useful option for access – about a 20 min carry to hit the snowline (if access to the tops for a tour is your game then the Sron a Ghoire side of the coire is probably the best bet at the moment - all very patchy initially on the Cairn Liath side)
Coire Ardair main path.
Snow cover on the main Coire Ardair path – from the birch trees after the first rise, the patchy slopes on Cairn Liath to the right.
Path towards Coire Ardair
Drumlin features in Valley floor
These low level features in many ways themselves a mountain microcosm  – with their scarp slopes, scoured ridge lines and loaded lee slopes all providing useful stability clues. Whilst there are differences for sure in terms of scale &  elevation if poor instability indicators are found on a certain aspect then projecting the added elevation of a similar aspect to the real thing –  likely only going to be worse. Always worth a poke at any low level features – not such a bad bite if you get it wrong!
Skis for access
Skis useful for access – whilst the path is trampled to start it is full of the inevitable ‘post holes’  –  on foot plenty more to be found as height is gained.
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