Cold, Deep Snow, Blizzards

Leaving the cairn at the top of the Fiachaill a Choire Chais
Looking into Coire ant Sneachda

Crown walls of observed avalanche are just visible in the top left corner of picture. Avalanche released either yesterday or last night. Crown wall 1m deep in places and 100m across has travelled 350 metres with enough debris to bury a car (size 3 avalanche) NW aspect 1100m.

A respite in the storm gave us some visibility for a short while - closing in again later with heavyy snowfall. Snowpack remains weak on most aspects.

Deep snow - Poor viz

The only view ! Looking across Loch Morlich to Cairngorm.
Deep snow everywhere above 500 metres, hard trail breaking - really poor visibility today -

I expected more scouring of the snow from NW aspects, but this was not the case. Generally the snowpack feels spooky and unstable especially by not being able to see what is above and being unable to see any angles or definition in the flat light.

Colder with snow getting firmer.

Looking West from Cairngorm toward Northern Corries

Conditions shaping up to be very good for walking and climbing - the snow although still fairly soft is developing a crust which increasingly holds your weight as you ascend in altitude. Colder temperatures will continue to improve the situation.

Weekend Avalanche Reports start

Looking into Coire an t Sneachda fro windy col
Looking N toward Glenmore from the top of the Goat Track

Winter has arrived and it looks as though will be cold from this weekend and into next week at least.

Today the snow has been pretty soft and is generally moist, after much avalanche activity in the week the snowpack has settled in the warmer temperatures and become much firmer with good climbing conditions in prospect.