With the snow finally having arrived and the forecast for boxing day showing a brief respite from the hurricane force winds, Hazel and I took the opportunity to head to the Cairngorms for our first skiing of the season (having blinked and missed the previous snowfall in November!)

We skinned from the Cairngorm car park across to and up Luchers Gully which was well worth it; the snow was perfect packed powder, there was hardly any wind, and the sun even came out.

We didn’t go up onto the plateau, as higher up the snow changed to ice and there were large scoured areas, so took the hint and turned around to enjoy a great descent down Lurchers, before popping our skins back on and traversing round into the bottom of Coire an t’Sneachda to ski back down to the car park track.

• Jon Bowyer, Dec. 2013