A nice day at last

It feels like a while since we have had a nice clear day like today, here are some pictures.

Looking over towards Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg. I reakon that ice climbing conditions high on the Ben would have been great today.
Some cracking appearing by my footsteps on on a small test slope.

The crags at the south end of Coire an Lochan of Aonach Mor. Note that crown wall down and left.

Recent avalanche debris reaching the lochan, with one of these slides coming from the crown wall seen in the previous picture.

A mild and damp Ben Nevis

Still some ice hanging in there on the Orion face.
It was pretty windy up there today (see the spray from the waterfalls going up). There has been a drastic thaw at this level recently. A couple of days ago the main cic hut ice fall looked almost climbable, but now it has collapsed.

A couple of days ago these large holes in the snow cover weren't there.

Aonach Mor on Tuesday.

Still some large cornices on the top of Coire an Lochan.

An avalanche that released (probably sometime yesterday) due to a large section collapsed cornice. Debris made it down to the Loch.

Lots of people heading down Easy Gully (or at least thinking about it). Coire an Lochan probably had it's busiest day of the winter today.

Sunshine on Aonach Mor

North end of Coire an Lochan yesterday (Tuesday 09 March).

Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg from Aonach Mor as today's morning cloud cleared.

Last weeks avalanches

Not much to see on the hill today (very poor visibility) so have put on some pictures of another big avalanche that occurred last week. This one came down the West face of Sgurr a' Mhaim in the Mamores. These pictures of the damage to trees were taken at an altitude of about 300 metres.

Thanks to Rob Jarvis of High Mountain guides for the pictures.

BIG avalanche on the Ben.

Yesterday we investigated a couple of huge avalanches that occurred just to the North of the red burn on Ben Nevis on Saturday.

The two big avalanches on the Ben. The left had one down the "baby brother red burn" (the smaller burn just to the north of the red burn), and the other down the slope between that and the red burn.
A person crossing the debris of the left hand of the avalanches.

The debris of the right hand of the avalanches. The tourist path up the Ben is under there (it can just be seen at the left hand side of the picture). The three dots that can be seen in a line near the red burn are in fact people.

Looking out across the debris of the left hand slide down to where it reached the mid way loch.

The avalanche picked up and moved large boulders like this one (note the ski stick for scale)

A lot of debris.

Snowy Ben

Poor photo of life up the Ben today. Loads of snow on the path making walking tedious. Footprints drifting in very quickly. You can maybe see the huge amount of snow on the west face of CMD. E face of Carn Dearg Buttress very wind blown and lots of snow swirling round the corrie
Knee deep fresh snow on the CIC Hut path in the forrest!

Another sunny day.

It was another beautiful sunny day today. Here are some pictures

The crags in Coire an Lochan a buried in soft snow. There have been few climbers on Aonach Mor (Ben Nevis has been popular from a climbing point of view thought). The ski tracks that can be seen come from Easy Gully. The corniced entrance to the gully looks a little exciting at the moment.
Avalanches have occurred on South facing slopes during the past few days due to solar warming.
Some very good skiing in the Back Coires. Here Matt cruises down Spikes Gully

Some substantial surface hoar crystals have formed in the cold and settled conditions. These large, feathery crystals are likely to form a weak layer if survive long enough to be buried by the next snowfall.

A cross section of the surface of the snowpack frozen to the crystal card. You can clearly see how the large surface hoar crystals have grown out of the finer crystals below.

If only it was always like this...

Looking over to Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis

Good ski touring conditions, here heading down to the Aonach Mor/Aonach Beag col.

There is about a foot of deep soft snow on the plateau, travel on foot where it has not been tracked would be pretty hard work.

The crags in Coire an Lochan of Aonach Mor are well buried

Avalanche debris, probably from Wednesday, in Coire an Lochan.

Fresh Snow

Climbers on the classic mixed route Stirling Bridge a couple of days ago. This route has been seeing a fair bit of traffic over the past few days. You can see the size of the cornice on the gully on the right. This team did the hard pitch and then abseiled off rather than trying to battle through the not quite so large, but still formidable cornice above the route.

The summit plateau of Aonach Mor today in a brief clear moment.

A fair bit of fresh snow at higher levels today.

More forecast tonight and tomorrow.

Aonach Mor on Saturday

The Ben Today

Up the Ben today

Avalanche forecasting and Milk Delivering on Ben Nevis

Looking towards the Orion face area.

Looking up into Coire na Ciste.

Some essential supplies that I delivered to the CIC hut today, 4 and a bit litres semi-skimmed milk, 8 cans of coke, and a bottle of cheap Irish whiskey.

I was up on Ben nevis today. Mountain conditions were generally pretty good, with climbers spotted on Tower Ridge, Point Five Gully, Italian climb and No. 3 Gully Buttress. There are also quite a few short but nice looking icefalls below Carn Dearg Buttress (where we saw at least one team) and in the little gullies which lead up into Coire an Ciste. However, there is a few patches of slab about. Remember that a brief definition of a moderate hazard (which it is at the moment) is "Natural Avalanches unlikely. Human triggered avalanches possible", so don't assume that just because the hazard is "only" moderate, you can wander safely anywhere and everywhere on the hill with no risk triggering an avalanche.

I also took the chance to delivered some essential supplies for Dave and Andy who are staying at the CIC hut, and are involved in the Smith-Marshal project for the Fort William Mountain festival this weekend. We spotted them up on Minus Three Gully today.

Cracking underfoot

Some good example of cracking underfoot was observed today. When the snow is doing this on relatively gentle slopes, then steep slope covered in windslab are best avoided.

Under a threatening sky.

Looking over towards Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg under a threatening sky.

Not very much ice on the north face of Aonach Beag, there has not been the freeze thaw cycles required to build the ice at this level so far this year.

A large and threatening cornice lurking at the top of easy gully at the moment.

Looking south across Coire an Lochan.

The snow is here

Looking towards the summit hut and top of the summit tow. It had just started snowing up there at that point.

It started snowing on Aonach Mor just before midday, and has been snowing pretty steadily since then. The winds were not super strong so the snow was quite soft. I think that the skiing could be pretty good when the visibility clears up. However, other than on exposed locations, the walking could be pretty hard going.

Now and then.

It was quite cloudy on the top of Aonach Mor today, so no great pictures today. Through the course of the winter we see significant changes in snow cover. In certain areas the snow builds up to great depths. When standing at the top of, for example, Easy Gully, I often wonder just how much snow there is under my feet. I am still not sure, but thought I would put on some pictures of the top of the East Face taken recently (still quite early in the season), to compare with some taken in the summer to give an indication of snow depth, and how the character of the place changes.

Climbers above central buttress last week.
The top of central buttress is late August. Note firstly that the fence posts are just back from the change in angle, and secondly there are a couple of patches of snow still visible in the background. Last summer (2009) all the snow melted on Aonach Mor during the summer, but a patch did survive over on Aonach Beag. The previous summer 2008, patches of snow survived all summer on both Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag.

The top of Easy Gully yesterday (Sat 30th).

The top of easy gully in summer (during a rare summer ascent of the gully).