Hogmanay snow

Heavy snow came in around mid-day. Here Kathy does her snowpit in around half a metre of new slab at 1100 metres in Ciste Mhearad. Much spindrift in the high winds. Bodes well for the New Year!

Back to winter

It was colder today although the winds were less. Snow arrived in the afternoon and drifting (see photo) caused some shallow windslab build-up. The old snow is now re-frozen, so the danger of slips or trips above rocky runouts is still there. We are still hearing of more incidents due to this.

117 mph today

That was the top wind gust today on Cairngorm summit. The wind and rain rather restricted observations, but here is Kathy on the Coire Cas headwall. Sorry about the raindrops on the lens! Weather is forecast to be colder and windy into the New Year

SAIS at home

A dry and increasingly windy day here today, with not much change to the snowpack and surfaces still icy. Kathy Grindrod and Sandy Allan were your Observers today. They didn't have the camera, so no hill pics. Here SAIS Co-ordinator Blyth Wright pontificates while Kathy disagrees.
The snowpit shows that the temperature gradient is decreasing from recent high values.

25/12/06 Looking into Coire an t Sneachda

Warm on the tops and cold in the valleys - the snowpack is diminishing in the warm temperatures, but the remaining snowpack is bullet hard and ice glazed, requiring crampons to be worn to progress on slope angles more than 5 degrees !!!Crags remain bone dry with loose rock and the snow gullies in the Northern Corries are now broken.

However a great day for being on the tops with sunshine and good views, now, all that is required for the perfect day is to get home for Christmas dinner.

Merry Xmas

Cairn Toul beyond the Plateau

Another glorious day - views as far North as Ben Hope.

Very hard ice glazed snow.

northern Corries Buttresses dry and black with some loose rock.

Scary descents into corries due to rock hard snow and bad runouts.

The first picture shows the remaining snow cover in Coire an Lochain. Despite warmer temperatures,inversions around 700-1100 metres mean that the snow is hard-frozen and icy. Combined with the rocky runouts, this presents very serious conditions, when the consequences of any fall are maximised. On a cheerier note, the other picture shows today's all-girl team enjoying the winter sunshine!

Perfect conditions on the hill today with fabulous views across the Cairngorms. Although the freezing level was well above the summits everything remained well frozen. Pictures show (bottom) Hell's Lum Crag and (top) Shelter Stone Crag and Carn Etchachan.

North Cairngorms opening day

Well, the girls and boys were out today on Cairngorm. Here Kathy Grindrod's snowpit on Coire Cas headwall clearly shows the interface between the new slab and the hard crust below. The deeper old snow below has not yet frozen, so breakable crust exists in many locations. It was quite cool today with summit temperatures around minus 2 Centigrade, so here's hoping for a wintry winter!