The White Room

It was another day the "White Room"on the tops in Lochaber today. It was lovely weather on Saturday morning, but then the cloud rolled in about the middle of the day, and there has been no visibility on the summits since. Although it remained dry in the Glens, it was snowing on the hills. There was also plenty of snow blowing around on the strong Easterly winds. After a bit of a bump last weekend the SAIS camera has been feeling poorly, below are a couple of shots I took on my own camera. 

Lots of snow, but still not a great deal of visibility on the tops today. 

Here's what it would look like, if you could see anything. Aonach Beag on Saturday morning just before the cloud rolled in. 

Sunshine on Aonach Mor

It was mainly a bright day with a more cloudy period either side of midday.

View West from the north slopes of Aonach Mor.

Coire an Lochan: southern side.

Carn Mor Dearg East slopes with Ben Nevis behind.

Lovely morning.

It was a lovely morning on Ben Nevis. During the afternoon there were some light snow showers. 

 The Orion Face looking good. 

 Coire na Ciste

 Water courses freezing up in the cold weather.

From the glens it looks like there is a bit of fresh snow on the hill. However, on closer inspection this is about as deep as the fresh snow got. Not a powder day I think it is fair to say.

Dry in Lochaber (again)

The cloud was coming and going from Ben Nevis today. Despite the strong East winds there looked to be quite a few people out and about enjoying some good looking climbing conditions. It remained essentially dry again, and so snowpack remains hard, icy and stable. Some fresh snow at some point would be nice. 

 Looking up into Coire na Ciste. 

North East Buttress and Observatory Gully

The upper part of Observatory Gully. Two climbers can just be made out below Tower Scoop. 

Ben Nevis

 The upper parts of Ben Nevis remained in the cloud through most of the Day. There was a cold wind blowing down the Allt a Mhuilinn.

I got a brief  view of Number 5 Gully and Trident Buttress before the next bank of cloud rolled in. Although it was slightly milder at the weekend there looks like plenty of decent ice remaining on Ben Nevis.

Aonach Beag day.

I had a wander over to Aonach Beag today. A small piece of trivia for you, the summit of Aonach Beag at 1234 metres is the highest point in Britain which is not made of igneous rock. It was cloudy on the summits, but at the col it was clear enough to to see the route on the North face of Aonach Beag. Conditions were looking good but quite busy on the classic ice routes. There was a team on Kings Ransom and two teams on both of Royal Pardon and Stand and Deliver.

 A climber on the steep crux and Stand and Deliver.

The snowpack is quite firm at the moment. The hardest part of today was digging the snowpit. I find the easiest way to start is to saw a square in surface, wedge the snow shovel under one side, and leaver the top icy layer off. This process is repeated a few times, and then the slightly softer snow underneath can be dug out. 

Colder than off late.

It was dry with some cloud floating around the summits. It was a bit colder than over the weekend and the snowpack has frozen solid.

 Still some substantial cornices about. Although these are frozen solid now, they will start drooping and falling off when it does turn mild.  

Ben Nevis appearing through the cloud. About 30 seconds later it had disappeared again.  

Aonach Mor.

It was cloudy on the Aonach Mor plateau, though the sun did try to break through at times.

Coire Dubh and view South-Eastwards from Aonach an Nid.

Always nice to see a Ptarmigan; this the male of a pair.

Cloudy day on Carn Mor Dearg.

It was a cloudy day in Lochaber with a little drizzle.

Dropping out of the clouds.

And a view across to Ben Nevis.

Sunny Again

It was another fine sunny day. The surface of the snowpack softening in locations exposed to the sun, and provided some quite good skiing. On shady North facing aspects the snow remains hard and icy, and the skiing is not so good.

 Looking East to the grey Coires.

Aonach Beag. Climbing conditions are quite good here. There was a pair on the classic grade V icefall Stand and Deliver today. Kings Ransom and Royal Pardon have also seen numerous ascents over the past few days and are reported to be in good nick. 

Looking over to Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis. The Ben has been busy the past few days with many classic ice routes Orion Direct, Point Five etc having queues on them. In these situations getting hit by ice knocked of by other climbers is a significant hazard.

More Sunshine!

More sunshine

Another sunny day at work!

Much of the snow surface has frozen. Most teams had crampons on for walking on the flat summit plateau!

Busy day up the Ben

The Great Tower

Looking towards the Orion Face. Plenty of climbers in view

Corrie ne Ciste, looking up towards Green Gully

Very poor visibility on Aonach Mor.

A view Westwards before I walked up into the mist and snow.  

Extremely poor visibility on the plateau.

A cold dry day on Aonach Mor.

View North-Westwards

Carn Mor Dearg East slopes.

Wild day on the Ben

Its was pretty wild walking up to the CIC hut today! Very strong SE winds and frequent snow showers

Calm and just about clear.

It was calm and intermittently clear on the tops today. Conditions look pretty good for both climbing and skiing at the moment. 

 Two walkers heading down towards the Aonach Mor/Aonach Beag col with Sgurr a' Mhaim ipoking through the cloud in the background. 

 Aonach Beag. Ice looks like it is forming quite well on many of the routes. 

Looking over to the top of Ben Nevis. 

A calmer day on Aonach Mor with some views.

Looking NW from Aonach an Nid.

View Westwards from Aonach an Nid.

No views today!

Another day of poor visibility on the summit of Aonach Mor. There was lots of new fresh windslab in the Eastern Corries

Standing on the edge of Easy Gully. Cant see a thing!

Ben Nevis day.

Carn Dearg, the Organ Pipes and the Castle Gullies. There was a large pile of debris just off the picture    below the Castle Gullies. This was probably from the avalanche cycle on Thursday. There is a pair heading up to the steepest of the lower ice falls. 

 A bit of ice is starting to form on the Orion face and surrounding area. 

 A team of mountaineers is dwarfed by the Carn Mor Dearg.

 The Trident Buttresses. 

There was a very distinct layer of graupel within the snowpack. 

Good visibility (at last)

It was the first day for a while that the tops were clear from cloud and it was good to see plenty of people out and about enjoying the wintery conditions. Both the skiing and climbing conditions are looking pretty good at the moment. I saw evidence of at least 3 substantial avalanches, and heard about another one,  which came down during Thursday. 

 Plenty of snow in the south Side of Coire an Lochan. 

 Looking over to Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis behind. Just out of shot to the right an avalanche released on Thursday just below the ridge line which is about 1090m there with debris being visible below 800m. Although not very wide it had travelled about 300 metres vertically and over 1/2 km horizontally. I did take a picture of it, but it didn't really show up very well. 

 Looking South towards Aonach Beag. 

 The cliffs of Coire an Lochan looking good. There were quite a few climbers here today. I suspect Ben Nevis would have been busy as well. 

Debris from one of Thursdays avalanches.