No visibility on Aonach Mor today and another Sgurr a' Mhaim avalanche

No photographs were taken on Aonach Mor today as there was nothing to see other than snow.

And snow was still being blasted across the hillside at 400 metres, here at the top of 

Leanachan Forest as I walked down to Nevis Range offices.

Avalanche on the North slopes of Sgurr a' Mhaim photographed yesterday (30 January).  

Interestingly this is the second avalanche recorded this winter from this area - see our blog

 for 10 January to see a photo of a previous avalanche.

Avalanches on the Ben.

Looking up to the CIC hut and the Tower ridge on the Right. There have been two large avalanches down the snow slopes below the flanks of Tower ridge. Visibility was poor, but I estimated the crown walls to but up to 2 metres high. Certainly both of the "Gulges" were full of debris. These probably released on Sunday evening. There was also another (in addition to the one discussed in Sunday's blog post) avalanche that reached the CIC hut-Halfway Lochan path.

Visibility was pretty poor at times. Not great conditions for photographing avalanches. 

Another day of no visibility on Aonach Mor upper slopes.

The view Westwards before I reached the cloud base.

Not much visibility on the plateau - the heavily rimed tower.

There are indications of weaknesses in the windslab in many areas, including shooting cracks. 

Not quite as wild as expected on the Ben.

Heavy rain and strong winds in the Nevis Range carpark this morning. I thought I was in a wild day on the hill. 

 However, when I got out the wind seemed to ease a bit and it was generally dry.  

 It even cleared right up to summit level briefly. 

There is good cover, with the plenty of fresh snow falling last night and this morning. Looking up the usually scoured West face of Carn Mor Dearg. 

With all this snow about at higher level there has been some substantial avalanches.  Here debris from the one of the Castle Gullies (probably South) can be seen heading down diagonally rightwards to almost reach the path that runs round from above the half way lochan to the CIC hut. This very probably released on Friday evening as the freezing level rose.

Loads of snow on the Ben

Further snowfall last night has further created further snow accumulations. There is lots of snow up there! Rising freezing levels should produce some avalanche activity late this afternoon and overnight.

Sunshine and showers.

It was a day of sunshine and snow showers. The sunshines was rather fleeting, and the showers were quite substantial. There has been a fair bit of fresh snow put down.  I made it to the summit plateau, but by that point visibility was almost nil. I could just about make out some pretty large and unstable looking cornices. With the freezing level rising to above the summits and rain forecast tomorrow afternoon, I suspect there will be a fair bit of avalanche activity and cornice collapse. 

 Occasionally it was like this on the hill today. 

However, most of the time it was more like this. 

The wild weather returns

Ben Nevis in all its glory! Quite a few teams retreating from the Northern Corries today due to the poor weather and conditions

Avalanche Activity

An unexpected change of wind direction round to the SW or W this morning formed fresh areas of unstable windslab mainly high up above the crags or on scarp slopes

Fresh avalanche debris on Aonach Mor, below the crags to the south of Easy Gully. these all happened this morning

World snow day

Today is world snow day apparently. The weather decide to celebrate this in a typically scottish manner; snow on the top and rain and sleet lower down. It did try and clear up later in the day though. 

 Trying to clear up on the summit during the afternoon. 

A climber accessing the routes in Coire an Lochan by abseil to avoid any potential avalanche hazard in Easy Gully (which is the more common approach).The shape of the loch can be made out in the floor of the coire. The dark curve on the near side of the loch is a big crack in a pile of debris from a large avalanche which smashed into the loch back during the stormy conditions of late December/early January.

Today the winds were from the South-East. This tended to scour the coire, and deposit the fresh snow in the little flutings seen just back from the edge. However, this does not mean that there were not some patches of unstable windslab lurking in the coire.

Poor Visibility

Here is the view form the summits today. Not the best of visibility!

Damp on the Ben

A generally damp day on the hill today. Lots of snow up the Ben but it is very variable in nature, ranging from excellent to rubbish!
 Not many teams out climbing.

Clear Morning.

It was a nice clear morning, with first clouds of the next storm system moving in during the day. With the freezing level expected to rise above the summits, and heavy rain to fall, it likely to be quite an unpleasant day Wednesday. Avalanches and cornice collapse are expected. 

Coire an Lochan. I have not seen many climbers here this year. Many of the routes are currently buried by soft snow, and are overhung by large cornices. A few thaw-freeze cycles should improve help to improve the climbing conditions. 

 A skier enjoying the back coires of Nevis Range ski area. If you do chose to ski here it is prudent to carry a shovel, probe and transceiver, and know how to use them.  

 Atmospheric light looking over to Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis.  

Looking East from towards the Ben. THere is three people on the CMD arete, can you spot them?

A bright sunny morning on Aonach Mor.

Continuing redistribution of snow across the Aonach Mor plateau. 

Heavy riming on the summit mast.

Snow drifting from the Aonach Mor plateau on to the crags South-East of Easy Gully.  

The Ben today

The bottom of the debris front of No5 Gully avalanche earlier in the week. Its about 10 mins walk from the CIC Hut!

Avalanche day.

The combination of snow showers, moderate Westerly winds and low temperatures have deposited some pretty weak windslab in sheltered locations. I saw plenty of evidence of recent avalanche activity and cornice collapse. 

 Lots of soft slab and weak cornices in Coire an Lochan. Some small debris fans can be seen below the crags. 

 A crown wall (running diagonally up toward the cornice) at the top of a gully. 

Soft slab being deposited into the back coires through the day. 

Good cover at higher levels.

 Cornices continue to build. There are some large cornices about at the moment. 

 For a short spell the sun tried to come out. 

Good cover in Coire Dubh and Stob an Cul Choire. 

Avalanche on The north side of Sgurr a Mhaim in the Mamores. It was not very obvious so I marked the crown wall in red. You can see the dirty stained debris on the slight shelf lower down. This released some time on Monday night. I have never seen an avalanche in this location before.

Ben Nevis: avalanche debris from last Friday.

Last Friday (3 January) there was a significant snow storm followed by a rise in temperature overnight.  This led to a number of avalanches the debris from some of which I photographed today.

  

Debris from an avalanche down Observatory Gully ran below the bottom narrows and is visible behind the CIC hut.

Debris a long way below No. 5 Gully.

Crown wall running from below Green Gully across to below No. 3 Gully Buttress.

Good snow cover

Distant view of the Ben from the top car park

Poor visibility on the summit of Aonach Mor

The cloud returns.

There was some visibility this morning, but the cloud soon came in, and by the afternoon it was snowing again as the next storm system approaches. 

 Lots of the snow at the top of ski area. This hut was almost completely covered yesterday and needed dug out. 

By the time I got to the top the cloud had come down. Everything is pretty plastered in snow and hoar at this level.  

Loads of snow for the way back down, pity you couldn't see anything.