Under the Influence?
22nd March 2022
Another lovely sunny day in the Cairngorms. The atmosphere was very hazy today, if felt much more like a summer haziness rather than the clarity you often get when it is clear during the depths of winter. Initially it felt very quiet on the plateau, but as I headed over to Ben Macdui people seemed to appear from lots of different directions. That got me thinking, were people influenced by the pictures that my colleagues in South Cairngorms put on their blog yesterday, or was it just coincidence that I arrived at a busy time. How much do the SAIS blogs influence behaviour? A good question, you could probably do a PhD on that one question. Will my pictures today encourage more people over there tomorrow, Â or will people be put off by the potential crowds. I am not sure, but it would be interesting to know. Perhaps you could leave a comment about how much this post specifically or the SAIS blogs in general influence your plans and in what way.
Hells Lum caught a fair bit of sunshine today. Not very clear in the photo but there was debris to the left of the crag from a cornice collapse that occurred some time in the past few days.Â
Great snow cover on the plateau.Â
Looking over to the coires of Braeriach. Again hard to make out in the picture, but looked like cornice debris in most of these coires. Not unexpected given that Braeriach tends to get substantial cornices, and cornices won’t be faring too well in the current mild conditions.Â
The wilds of Carn Toul and Monadh Mor behind.Â
The summit of Ben MacDui today. Were these people influenced by South Cairngorms blog post yesterday, would be interesting to know.Â
Can Toul and Sgor an Lochan Uaine (Angel’s Peak). Â Some avalanche activity, probably cornice collapse, can be seen on the smooth slope just right of centre.Â
Coire an Lochan.Â
Comments on this post
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Alistair MacSween
22nd March 2022 6:13 pm
Re blog comments influencing.
I look at the Northern Cairngorms report daily for the obvious avalanche risk data but also for the blog to see what photographs have been taken. They give a good idea of the snow cover and general conditions present. The “Mountain Conditions” comments are also good, in particular in relation to movement.
As above but not as often for the Torridon report and blog. I often use the Coire an Laoigh route to access and descend the higher tops.
Thanks for your great work. Much appreciated..
ncairngormsadmin
23rd March 2022 2:05 pm
Thanks for the comments folks, and glad you appreciate what we post.
Hugh Spencer
22nd March 2022 6:34 pm
Ok…Blog pictures are hugely informative as they show snow volumes…where…and at what heights. The webcams have some value on this but are nothing compared to the wide view pics and the corrie pics in the Blogs. I check the pics every day – a superb winter planning tool – so thanks for taking the time to take and upload the pics and choosing views and subjects of strategic planning value.