Not a fine day on Ben Nevis.

Two optimistic folk heading up towards Observatory Gully in some less that perfect conditions today.

Looking up towards Carn Dearg Buttress in some not very pleasant conditions. If you look carefully you can see the streams being blown back up over the band rock in the middle of the picture.

As predicted there was plenty of precipitation today. Unfortunately it was not as cold as expected, and a fair bit of that precipitation fell as rain rather than snow. After a mild night, it did snow down to about 700 metres early in the morning. However, the snow level rose to around the summits level through the day. I suspect that a fair bit of fresh snow has been deposited high on Aonach Mor and Ben Nevis, and with the rising temperatures that these newest deposits are not very stable. Having retreated to the office, and with nice view of strong winds and heavy rain though the window, I also suspect that it is not very pleasant up there at the moment. Hopefully a bit colder tomorrow.

Still some snow left!

Some pictures of Aonach Mor and the Ben at lunchtime today. Still plenty of snow left after the thaw!

Looking across the crags on Aonach Mor

Looking towards the Ben

All I want for Christmas is.....Winter

The pictures above show that is was not a very Christmasy scene on Ben Nevis today. Heavy rain, strong winds (gusts of 114mph were recorded on nearby Aonach Mor) and a freezing level of nearly 3000 metres meant that the snow and ice was melting pretty quickly. Most of the ice which had been observed a week of so ago is now gone, with only the main gully lines complete. With more of the same forecast tomorrow it is turing out to be more like A Nightmare before (after) Christmas than a Christmas Carol this year.

More snow in the West.

Over the past few days there has been a fair bit more snow on the hills of Lochaber. Yesterday (Monday) was quite a mild day with rain at lower levels and lots of heavy wet snow higher up. Today was colder with snow showers through the day. The picture shows conditions at the snowpit site (a South-Easterly aspect at an altitude of 1130m). By probing from the bottom of the snowpit, I discovered that there is more than 4 metre of snow on this slope.

Lots of Snow in the West.

Looking South along the East face of Aonach Mor today. The routes Left Twin and Morwand finish up the snowcrest catching the sunshine the in the middle distance.

It started off a lovely day today. We were up on Aonach Mor and, for me a least, it was the first day up there this season with good visibility. I took this opportunity to have a good look around. For this time of year there is loads of snow about, most of which has been blown in on a Westerly wind. As you would expect there is some pretty substantial cornices about. Many of the posts above Left Twin/Morwand area are buried. In previous winters we often abseil off these to investigate the snow on the scarp slopes above these routes. Many guides and instructors also use these post to abseil into these and nearby routes when the snow in Easy Gully is not very stable. However, unless the snow melts back a bit, this may not be an option this winter.

Looking over to Ben Nevis as the weather starts to get threatening.

Through the morning the cloud gathered, before the wind got up and there were some snow showers through the afternoon.

Avalanche on the Ben.

Today we were up on Ben Nevis for a wee look about. In general there is lots of snow, and winter climbing conditions are looking good, and there were very few people about.
There has been a large avalanche from below the Orion face. The crown wall ran all the way from below the first platform of North East Buttress to below Observatory Ridge. In the photo I have marked the most obvious bit of the crown wall in red. The height of this crown wall was quite variable, and in some sections it was quite shallow and hard to pick out. However, other sections were quite obvious and could be seen as far away the the Dam. We estimated at one section the crown wall was about 2 metres high.
All in all quite a substantial avalanche, and the largest I have seen from that bowl below the Orion face. It probably occurred some time on Tuesday when there was a lot of snow, and the freezing level briefly rose to about 1000m.

New Season

Climbing conditions are building quite nicely on the Ben at the moment. Here you can see a fair bit of ice about on the Trident Buttresses, with Mega Route X already looking in better nick that it did throughout last winter.

A fair bit of snow in Coire ne Ciste. By the time this picture was taken (Friday) it had consolidated due to some milder conditions on Thursday. However, there has also been some avalanche activity earlier in the week , with evidence of slides from below Glovers Chimney, below Green Gully as well as down Number 4 Gully and Number 5 Gully.

Looking up Observatory Gully on Saturday the 10th, again with a fair bit of ice about.

Wet, wet, wet

Summit temperatures of plus seven degrees, and heavy persistent rain through the day led to some very wet avalanche forecasters. Compare these pictures to those on our blog reports from this time last year. This is not quite the nice settled spring weather that I had hoped for!

Before the rain

After a couple of slightly colder days (sunday and monday morning) it was back to mildness on Aonach Mor today. There had been a fair bit of fresh snow over during those days, but this was thawing. I managed to get this picture just before it started chucking it down with rain. A few bit of debris mainly from cornice collapse and ice fall could be seen below the crags.

Winter returns

Blowing snow on the Nid ridge.

A drift of fresh snow.

Winter made a bit of a reappearance today, with heavy showers falling as snow above about 800 metres. Above about 1000 metres there were some quite substantial drifts, and some fresh cornice formation. A small cornice triggered avalanche was observed in the Back Corries of Aonach Mor. However, looks like a return to mild conditions tomorrow.

A claggy day on the Ben

It was claggy day on Ben Nevis today. At this level the surface of the old wet snowpack had a bit of a crust, and was very soft underneath. There had been a little snow on top of this overnight which was turning damp through the day as the freezing level rose. There were a couple of teams of climbing on Tower Scoop which looked in okay condition. Another team was seen heading further up into the mist. I am not sure where they got to or how much ice remain on the likes of Smiths route.

Mild and damp

Damp times, but still some pretty substantial patches of snow about.

Slight freeze on the tops

It was slightly colder overnight than it had been recently. Some rime ice had formed on grass and moss at higher levels (at about 1200 m in this picture). The snow cover at this level had an icy crust to it from the colder conditions.

There are a number of cracks about which have been created by cornices creeping and slumping the the mild conditions we have been experiencing over the past week. Although some sections of cornice have already dropped off, there are plenty more waiting for when the thaw resumes.

The thaw goes on

The spring snowpack was continuing to thaw at all levels today, as see looking over onto Carn Mor Dearg.

Ben Nevis: thawing at all levels.

19th March

The crags of Coire an Lochan. No climbers here today.

A group peak over the top of the chancer ski run. Note the size of the cornices above the crags to the left.

A couple of size 1 avalanches in Coire an Lochan. They released somewhere up in the crags above. We reckoned that one travel about 70m, and the other about 100m.

A sunny day at last.

Looking East over the Grey Coires.

Coire an Lochan of Aonach Mor.

Looking over to Carn Mor Dearg

On the tops, the South-Westerly winds were strong enough to transport the snow, and build fresh layers of windslab in sheltered locations. This is seen here at the top of an East aspect at an altitude of about 1200m.

Big snow fall

A three metre avalanche probe.

When pushed into the snow only about 10cm sticking out.

There has been significant snowfall over the past couple of days, with the winds from the East or North-East. There was no snow on this westerly aspects a couple of days ago, now there is almost 3 metres of windslab. This is not particularly stable, especially where it is sitting on top of the old hard neve. Poor visibility over the last couple of days has meant that I have not seen any avalanches from this storm cycles, however I am sure they have occurred. If you do see any evidence of avalanches, we greatly appreciate your reports. An avalanche reporting form can be found on the SAIS website.

Wild Day

Looking up the Nid ridge on Aonach Mor this morning, it did not look like there was a great deal of new snow. The strong winds, and low temperatures meant the most locations exposed to the wind like in the picture were very scoured. On lee slopes however, there was plenty of fresh unstable snow, and some big new cornices, and loads of blowing snow (no pictures as all the blowing snow made for very poor visibility). A quick probe close to where I dug todays pit site and I found over 150cm of fresh snow, and that was not even in a particularly sheltered location. I am sure in the back of Easy Gully and places like that there would be even more fresh, although I don't fancy going in there to find out at the moment.

At the snowpit location I found an clean shear at 24cm.

Having the ming.

Today I "had the ming" on Ben Nevis. It was a very wet day with heavy rain at lower levels and above about 900m soft, wet snow. It was not as cold as hoped for with the freezing level rising to about 1100 metres briefly around midday before dropping again during the afternoon.

The lower part of Comb Buttress

A pair below Trident buttress.

Spring Sunshine

It was a lovely Spring like day in Lochaber today. To the south there was a sea of cloud, which at times flirted with the summit plateau of Aonach Mor. To the North the cloud was more broken. Visibility towards Aonach Beag was poor, so no report on the ice conditions over there at the moment. The snow started off hard and icy, but where exposed to the sunshine was softening through the day, to provide great skiing in some locations.

Looking over to Carn Mor Dearg and the Ben.

The south side of Coire an Lochan. Still some substantial cornices about.

Coire an Lochan.

Looking up into Coire na Ciste today.

Old avalanche debris below Number 5 gully. This avalanche occurred during the mild wet spell last week.

Fresh cornices at the top of Number 5 gully. You might just about be able to make out an old crown wall on the shady snow slope in the middle distance. This is probably the same avalanche for which the debris is shown in the previous picture.

It was a lovely calm and sunny day on Ben Nevis today. Lots of climbers out with teams on The Orion Face, Hadrians Wall, Point Five Gully and most of the classic ridges. Saw old debris (from last weeks thaw) below Number 2 and Number 5 gullies, but no sign of any more recent debris. This contrast a bit with Aonach Mor where there were a number of avalanches yesterday (Sunday 27th).

After the Thaw

A view up towards the Orion face in between rain showers. Very warm!

On the Ben again.

Number Three Gully Buttress.

Easy shears were observed at the depth of 43cm at the snowpit location in Coire na Ciste today. This block, which measured about a metre by a metre, sheared easily when I stepped on it. The weather turned out to be better than expected, and there were plenty of teams out climbing.