Did the Secret Clash Tour with Colin Miller today – More of that later. Here’s the snow state:

The road from Rhynie to the Clash was clear as far as the forest, although it is marked as closed on signs going out of Rhynie. Aberdeenshire council have obviously done a great job clearing the snow, they seem to have employed a snow blower to bash through the worst. Care is still required because of narrowed sight lines and generally narrowed road, plus there are icy strips along the sides of the road in places. Traction was no problem with 90% tarmac along the route.

The car park is still the reduced area with snow/slush up the far end that would cause problems with cars not equipped with snow tyres. The temperature at the carpark was 2-3°C.

Snow depth around the forest 60-70cm, not too much evidence of drifting. The haute route, short cut and highland fling have been semi-pisted by driving a snowmobile over them (thanks Rick and Peter). No cut tracks visible.

The snow is fairly coarse, soft and quite wet, nevertheless good skiing is to be had. Plenty of traction with fish scale skis but glide wasn’t quite as good as expected (maybe a coarser base structure would help).  The forest would probably be impassable without skis because of the depth of snow and tendency of the snow to give way underfoot.

Rain and snow observed today, clearing in the later afternoon.