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.