And white again on the Aonach Mor plateau!

This morning was a repeat of yesterday. If anything there was even less visibility today!!

Dropping down below the clouds again.

However, this afternoon was different with the clouds lifting off the summit of Aonach Mor.

Back to very poor visibility on Aonach Mor.

The mast at the top of the Nevis Range ski area, and nothing much else visible.

Where exposed rocks were visible at least there was some perspective.

Dropping below the cloud base.

Some visibility today on Aonach Mor.

North-West slopes of Aonach Mor.

Coire an Lochan cliffs south of Easy Gully.

Coire an Lochan cliffs north end with spindrift.

The white room

It was another very white day on Aonach Mor. The weather station is currently not reporting due to lightning damage. The temperature was around -2 degrees Celsius at 1200 metres. Heavy showers were putting down more snow, and I could see an increase from yesterday. I think I saw some evidence of recent avalanches on Easterly aspects, but in the poor visibility it was hard to tell.  They were both in locations that I did not want to get to close to. Hopefully we will be able to see a bit more tomorrow.

Another wild day

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record it was another wild day on the hill with poor visibility. Temperatures were a bit milder than of late, with rain at lower levels, but snow on the tops.  

 For a brief moment the sun tried to peak through the cloud, however it soon disappeared again. 

 Probing around to get a feel for the different layers within the snowpack. We eventually did a snow pit in about the middle of the picture i think, it was quite hard to tell as it was all quite white and snowy.

Trying to make detailed observations of the layers was made tricky by the constant spindrift which kept filling the snowpit back up with snow.

Plenty of snow in the ski area. The weather was quite good at this stage, it did not stay like this. 

Blue skies at last!

For the first time this winter, or at least thats how it feels, it was possible to actually stand up on the summits without fear of being blown over. Visibility was even pretty good. Loads of fresh snow accumulations in the sheltered N and E facing corries

View over crags on Aonach Mor

Crags to the south of Easy Gully

White Christmas on Ben Nevis

Heading up towards the CIC hut. Although not quite as windy and wild as it has been there were still some heavy showers and a gusty wind. 

Carn Dearg and Castle Ridge.  Notice the avalanche debris near the bottom right of the picture.

We found a weak layer of graupel within the snowpack. Graupel is formed by the riming up of snowflakes and because of its spherical shape can form unstable layers when buried by subsequent snowfalls. Despite also being known as soft hail, it did not feel very soft when hitting us in the face at about 40mph in some of the heavier showers.

Windy today!

Life at 500m on Ben Nevis. A picture speaks a thousand words as they say!

Another wild day on the hill

Made it up Aonach Mor today just as the weather got even worse!
Heavy snow showers and strong Southerly winds made life fairly unpleasant even at 650m.

Nevis Range top station at 650m

Aonach Mor at 650m

A lot fresh snow, not a lot of visibility

It was a wild day on the hill, with plenty of fresh snow and not very much visibility. 

The goose tow track was filling in quite nicely. Often observing the quantity and the feel of the snow behind snow fences such as here, can give an idea of what the snow will be in much more hazardous locations, such as the the gullies in Coire an Lochan.

 A bit wilder and a bit more spindrift on the summit run

 Pretty wild up on the top. That is the summit ski patrol hut in the background.

Lots of spindrift blowing along the ground near the top of Coire an Lochan.  A lot of this would be deposited in the coire, and particularly at the tops of the gullies. You can imagine with this going on hour after hour through most of the day that a lot fresh and not very stable windslab will have built up. Probably best avoid these types on locations until it all consolidates a bit.

Avalanche Debris on the Ben

I had a wee wander up Ben Nevis today. There was quite an impressive pile of avalanche debris below number two gully. I suspect this can down yesterday evening as the temperature rose and the precipitation turned from snow to rain.

 Looking up the debris

 Looking down the debris (from the same spot as the top picture was taken)

Ice is starting to build in the stormy weather conditions we have been experiencing recently

Gradual thaw today

Loads of fresh snow on the more sheltered aspects. A gradual thaw today has produced a damp snowpack at most levels. Colder temps tomorrow should help consolidate things

East side of Aonach Mor at 800m

Wet snow on the Ben

After a substantial amount of new snow over the past 24 hours, there was a significant thaw early this morning releasing a few wet avalanches.

Looks like a good base forming for the next cold spell which is expected overnight and into tomorrow

Significant spindrift on Aonach Mor.

A Mountain Hare shot out from under this boulder as I walked past.

Spindrift on East side of Aonach Mor.

Spindrift on Aonach an Nid.

Another wild day on the Ben!

Some fairly heavy snow showers today - its certainly feeling more wintery than last week!

More wintry in Lochaber.

There were some ferocious gusts of wind across these Aonach Mor slopes today.

A wet and windy day on Ben Nevis.

Walking up the Allt a' Mhuilinn path.

 

Coire na Ciste from CIC Hut.

 

WInter not quite here!

A very brief glimpse of the summits from the office this afternoon:

Not much snow! Looks like it will be fairly stormy for the next week with alternating snow and rain so things can only get better!

Misty and Damp on the Ben.

 Poor visibility when walking up the Allt a Mhullin this morning. 

 Even poorer visibility up in Observatory Gully. 

On the way down I met these two who were heading up into Coire na Ciste for a bit of late season skiing. Full marks for commitment, hope they found some decent spring snow.

Clouding in on Aonach Mor

 Carn Mor Dearg with the cloud building behind. 

 Looking down a misty Easy Gully. Still plenty of snow in there. 

Cracking and slumping of the snowpack at the top of Easy Gully. 

Like last Sunday today started off quite nice but soon deteriorated   By the time I had got to the top of Aonach Mor the cloud had rolled in and there were some flurries of wet snow.

Another wet day on the Ben

After a promising start this morning, the sun quickly disappeared and the rain started again.

Widespread avalanche debris under many of the main gullies, probably from either Friday or yesterdays thaw

No visibility on Aonach Mor plateau

Apart from the tops of a few exposed rocks almost all I saw on the Aonach Mor plateau today were snow, cloud and my footprints.  Fresh snow was falling above around 900m, initially with a light South-South-Westerly wind though this did pick up during the afternoon.

Life on the Ben

Plenty of teams our on the Ben today. A fair amount of action on the Orion Face as well as the main ridge lines.

Climbers on Hadrians Wall

Recent avalanche debris below No4 Gully

Recent avalanche debris at the bottom of No5 Gully

Looking up to the cornice above No3 Gully