‘Bullet’ Hard snow
28th December 2025
A fine day for the hill. Calm, clear, dry and sunny. Temperature inversion cloud blankets were visible to the West, East and North of the area, but today the Northern Cairngorms basked in glorious sunshine. Temperatures in the glen this morning were noted as low as -8 degrees Celsius with many of the lochs in the glen starting to ice over. On the summit of Cairngorm it was a different story, with temperatures reaching +5 degrees. It was a day to be on the high plateau enjoying the warmth, sun and extensive views. High pressure is continuing to dominate, but cloudy conditions are forecast for the high tops tomorrow.
The greatest areas of snow are confined to coire back walls, coire rims, and on high plateaus on North to East aspects above 950 metres. The snow was ‘bullet’ hard today with extremely serious and consequential runouts. Indeed the snow was so hard, I was unable to dig a snow profile.
A great day for photographs which will give the reader a flavour of what snow remains here in the Northern Cairngorms.
Looking up the line of the Lochain Burn into the back of Coire an Lochain. Very icy underfoot in places and serious run outs for anyone approaching the base of climbing routes in the coire.
A closer view of the crags in Coire an Lochain.
Looking across the Lairig Ghru from the west flank of Cairn Lochain across to Cairn Toul (1291m) and The Angels Peak (1258m) on the right. A frozen Lochan Uaine just visible.
Looking across the Lairig Ghru from the west flank of Cairn Lochain to Sron na Lairig and the summit plateau of Braeriach.
Photo of the north and main summit of Ben Macdhui taken from the south flank of Cairn Lochain.
Looking south-east from the Cairngorm Plateau to a sea of cloud which shrouded much of the visible low ground East, North and West of the area.
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