Avalanche cake.

Damp, mild and windy on Aonach Mor today, hopefully a return to colder conditions on Monday

It was not very inspiring weather in Lochaber this weekend. Saturday started cloudy, cleared up for a while in the afternoon before staring to drizzle again in the evening. Sunday was windy with showers which fell as rain at all levels. The freezing level remained above the summit and so the snowpack continued to thaw.

The avalanche cake.

So to make up for the lack of interesting snow, we baked an avalanche cake. A three layers victoria sponge was used to create the underlying mountain shape. The top layers of this are cut up and placed in the approiate location to form your favourite avalanche track. The snowpack is made of regular white icing. The avalanche and debris is a mix of royal icing, and mini marshmallows. For extra realism (you can just make it out in the picture) a layer of surface hoar was created using edible cake glitter.
As well as being both fun and educational, such a cake is good tasty fuel for those of us whose job it is to look for real avalanches.
Blair

Aonach Mor in the sunshine

From the South

From the North.

Spring has sprung

Morning Slab, Ben Nevis with that nice water smear running down it

Looking further into the Corrie where much of the action was today. Many teams also on the ridge lines

Spring has Sprung.

Looking over to Ben Nevis.

Topping out on Right Twin.

For the first time this year it really felt like spring in Lochaber today. While wandering along the top I noticed my friend Rob topping out of Right Twin. He reported good conditions in shady locations, but things begining to soften where exposed to the sun. There are some large cornices about, and although they were generally stable today, they made topping out in some loactions quite awkard. Conditions were looking good over on the Ben.
Blair

Drooping cornices

Long crack appearing well behind the corniced edge.

This section of cornice is unlikely to be there for long. In fact I am sure that the crack you can see was getting wider in the time we were there.

Ben Nevis yesterday (14th March). A fair bit of ice high up.

Conditions have been mild for the past few days. Cornices are slumping, cracking and prone to collapse, as these pictures indicate. There is a fair amount of ice on the Ben. It is thawing at the moment, but what is left if/when it freezes should be good.
Blair

The Ben

Freezing level has lowered to around 1000m on the Ben today. Looking pretty thin low down. The Curtain has all but disappeared.

Quite a lot of recent debris below No 2, 3 and 4 gullies

The Ben

The Ben has a distinct winter feel about it with masses of fresh snow up high. Many of the lower routes are a bit on the thin side

Team Hopeful having a look at the Curtain

Its all down to route choice in the end. Various teams I spoke to today were all slightly agast at the scene below. Now they may have had some divine information as to the stability above, but I rather suspect not. Hopefully they survived, but if they did, it would be down to a lot of luck and not good route choice.

Team Suicide head up Number 2 Gully

It is often said that "Buttresses are a safer option" The team below have certainly taken this to heart! See if you can spot them

Team Steep on Sassenach

Weak Cornices.

The section of cornice which collapsed yesterday, with the debris in the background.

One section (further away) collapsed, while the other (foreground) section cracked, and settled a bit, but did not release. This failure was caused by stepping onto the location that this picture is taken from. When cornices are as weak as this, sometimes just approaching them can cause their failure. Other hill goers reported similar behaviour yesterday.

Yesterday there were some large cornices noted on Aonach Mor. This one collapsed when I skied a little too close. A climber was injured in Coire an Lochan, when he fell off when trying to surmount one other these cornices. Although the cornices were very unstable, the snowpack on the slopes below seems more stable. This cornice collapse failed to release the slope below. As the avalanche report indicates general snow stability, rather than specific cornice collapse hazard, a category 3 rather than a category 4 hazard rating was issued (although the cornice hazard was mentioned in the text).

Today the weather was very different with rain at all levels. Although all the cornices we observed today were still intact, but it wont be long before they begin collapsing due to the mild conditions. Also the stability of the large quantities of windslab about, will be dreceasing in the rain. All in all, an unpleasant, and potentially dangerous afternoon on the hill. However, a freeze is forecast for tomorrow, which will improve climbing conditions , and make travel around the hill alot easier.
Blair

What a difference a day makes,

Smile folk, it's snowing.

Yesterday (Monday) I was verging on losing the love for Scottish winter. Two weeks of mild weather, and then snow that was forecast, turned out to be rain all the way to summit level. To make matters worse, I slipped on some wet grass and ended up falling face first into some slush.
Today (Tuesday) things were very different. Heavy snow was falling at all levels, with the ski runs filling in nicely. Visibility was poor, so I could not see much on the tops. I imagine the climbing conditions will be improving, although some careful route choice is recommended as some large fragile cornices exist, and scarp slopes are likely to hold some poorly bonded snow. The fresh snow is quite soft, so in some places walking is quite hard going, but I think this is a small price to pay for a return to winter.
With the longer range forecasts predicting wintry weather all week, I have decided that maybe Scottish winter is not so bad after all.....
Blair

Winter returns

A party making their way up Coire Dubh, There was a bit of fresh snow here, but no real cornices. In other locations some large and fragile cornices have formed.

Winter made a return to Lochaber today. There was quite alot of fresh snow in the tops. Some soft cornices are forming. On Aonach Mor the area around Coire an Lochan didn't seem too bad from an avalanche point of view, with many people heading down Easy Gully no problem . We then headed over to the top of Summit Coire, the next coire to the south. Despite a similar altitude and aspects, there seemed to be more fresh snow here, and some substantial cornices were observed. A careful investigation revealed these were soft and prone to collapse.

Some wild and snowy weather expected tomorrow.
Blair