Saturday, December 18, 2010

Variability

It was cold day on Aonach Mor with summit temperatures of around -9C and a bitter Easterly wind. The older snowpack is very hard and icy (and probably providing some good climbing conditions), with a patchy cover of soft windslab. I took a wee ski tour from the top of the ski area to the actual summit of Aonach Mor and back along the top of the West face.

Little fresh snow here, you can see my poles are stuck into the very hard underlying neve.

However, just a few meters away there is about 35cm of fresh slab (poles inserted to the first joint)


The crags of Coire an Lochan today. Although climbing conditions generally looked pretty good, the East wind and low temperatures would have made it quite a chilly experience.