A nice day at last

It feels like a while since we have had a nice clear day like today, here are some pictures.

Looking over towards Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg. I reakon that ice climbing conditions high on the Ben would have been great today.
Some cracking appearing by my footsteps on on a small test slope.

The crags at the south end of Coire an Lochan of Aonach Mor. Note that crown wall down and left.

Recent avalanche debris reaching the lochan, with one of these slides coming from the crown wall seen in the previous picture.

A mild and damp Ben Nevis

Still some ice hanging in there on the Orion face.
It was pretty windy up there today (see the spray from the waterfalls going up). There has been a drastic thaw at this level recently. A couple of days ago the main cic hut ice fall looked almost climbable, but now it has collapsed.

A couple of days ago these large holes in the snow cover weren't there.

Aonach Mor on Tuesday.

Still some large cornices on the top of Coire an Lochan.

An avalanche that released (probably sometime yesterday) due to a large section collapsed cornice. Debris made it down to the Loch.

Lots of people heading down Easy Gully (or at least thinking about it). Coire an Lochan probably had it's busiest day of the winter today.

Sunshine on Aonach Mor

North end of Coire an Lochan yesterday (Tuesday 09 March).

Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg from Aonach Mor as today's morning cloud cleared.

Last weeks avalanches

Not much to see on the hill today (very poor visibility) so have put on some pictures of another big avalanche that occurred last week. This one came down the West face of Sgurr a' Mhaim in the Mamores. These pictures of the damage to trees were taken at an altitude of about 300 metres.

Thanks to Rob Jarvis of High Mountain guides for the pictures.

BIG avalanche on the Ben.

Yesterday we investigated a couple of huge avalanches that occurred just to the North of the red burn on Ben Nevis on Saturday.

The two big avalanches on the Ben. The left had one down the "baby brother red burn" (the smaller burn just to the north of the red burn), and the other down the slope between that and the red burn.
A person crossing the debris of the left hand of the avalanches.

The debris of the right hand of the avalanches. The tourist path up the Ben is under there (it can just be seen at the left hand side of the picture). The three dots that can be seen in a line near the red burn are in fact people.

Looking out across the debris of the left hand slide down to where it reached the mid way loch.

The avalanche picked up and moved large boulders like this one (note the ski stick for scale)

A lot of debris.