A day of two halves…
14th March 2025
Definitely a day of two halves, or maybe three thirds today. Overnight, some intense showers resulted in snow to just above glen level. Around 5-8cm fell on the summit of Cairn Gorm under relatively light winds.
The morning that followed was cloudy on the summits and northern upslopes. After which the cloud started to break in the afternoon giving a dry day with some fine clear spells.
Some accumulations of wind drifted snow were observed around steep terrain breaks and gully tops that border the plateau on South-East to South-West aspects. In some cases this could be considered soft windslab, but at this time of year the sun has a noticeable stabilising affect and weaknesses are all but diminished.
Apart from some isolated windslab development due to redistribution of lying snow, tomorrows picture is one of slow consolidation. Despite the mountains looking white, cover is quite superficial, and the sun is doing its work. The Avalanche Hazard will be Low.
A few good turns on the south side of Cairn Gorm. The rocks aren’t far below the surface, but the consolidating affect of the sun has created an agreeable and supportive snow surface.
Cloud starting to dissipate from the Tors of Beinn Mheadhoin.
Hell Lum. Look closely and some point release avalanches and “roller balls” are visible on the crag aprons. These small events are most likely due to the effect of the sun. Close to the surface, they demonstrate weakness in the new snow, but paradoxically indicate that the deeper snowpack has a degree of stability.
The top of Y Gully, Stag Rocks. This was one of the few areas of snow accumulation today at around 1000 metres. From a higher vantage point the greatest amounts of snow would be visible on the left of the gully, while on the right there was thinner snow cover. These drifts showed some lingering weakness in a representative snow profile site today. However, these are expected to diminish given the sun on southerly slopes today. Again, an isolated accumulation, a few metres downslope rocks and bare ground is visible. Carn Etchachan and Shelter Stone Crag are behind. Incredibly the classic summer rock climb ‘The Needle’ (E1) was climbed last week in spring conditions.
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Joy Heron
15th March 2025 9:42 am
Sometime in winter 1964, spent the night in the Shelter Stone & climbed a new ice climb with Dougal Haston & Brian Robertson. Called it “Joyride”.