A really pleasant day on Aonach Mor.

View Westwards this morning.

Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis summit behind.

Coire an Lochan cliffs SE of Easy Gully.  There are 2 crown walls visible below the crags.

View Northwards early afternoon.

More snow high up.

It was another wild day, with heavy snow above about 700 metres. I made it up to about 800 metres on Ben Nevis. With loads of fresh snow, and poor visibility, it would not have been particularly safe to go any higher. I met 3 or 4 other teams, all of whom sensibly turned back around the same level. It will be interesting to see what things are like high up when we eventually get some visibility on the tops.

At my high point there was a lot blowing snow which would stick to everything (including me) and slowly melt, as shown by my snow saw after about 5 minutes of being out the rucsac. 

The view from the CIC hut. The vague shape disappearing into the mist on the left is the Douglas Boulder. 

Looking down to the CIC hut. 

A bit more visibility on Aonach Mor.

Plumes of spindrift along Aonach an Nid.

Burst of sunshine to the West.

On Aonach Mor 2014 starts as 2013 ended - no visibility

Today there was a cloud cap above 900m on Aonach Mor and visibility was just as poor as yesterday.  So rather then post another white photograph here is a view looking Westwards before I walked up into the cloud. 

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.