Clear and Sunny

Walkers enjoying glorious views to the North from the Fiachaill of Coire Chais

Enjoying some nice snow on the South side of cairngorm

Another sunny day

Excellent plateau cover, although milder temperatures the snowpack is remaining cold.

Little change;  Generally stable with localised intabilities, due to the facets beneath the firm surface crust. 

Facet layer developing

Localised weaknesses below the surface crust due to the developing facetted layer.  This was on a North-West aspect at 1050 metres.

Generally conditions are excellent and the overall  snowpack is stable.

Light snow flurries

A great day for climbing, light winds, cold, snow flurries. For travel the snowpack is firm and boulder fields are filled in.

 

Cold calm conditions

Facets continuing to develop just below the strong surface crust.  These were found within a shallow snowpack on a North-West aspect at 1080 metres. 

In some locations the surface crust breaks away easily underfoot, revealing the dry facet layer.

Coire an t' Sneachda looking wintry

Fiacaill Buttress

Very cold with sunshine

Cloudy conditions over in the South

Surface Hoar has developed in the very cold temperatures.

Etchachan and the shelter stone looking good.

Cold with Good Snow-Ice Conditions

Northern Corries, Cairngorm - Cloud capped

 very firm snow ice conditions - great climbing - very firm for skiing - serious runouts

SAIS team in Corrie Lochain comparing notes L to R Colin Bruce, Tim Walker, Sandy Allan, Mark Diggins, Alan Dennis

Another Blue day

Looking toward Loch Etchachan from Cairngorm Summit

Heading toward the Saddle and Loch Avon - Ben Avon beyond

Blue Sky Day

Northern Corries from Glenmore

 A good day for a change - snowpack improving considerably with freeze thaw cycles - hard and icy conditions unless in the sunshine.

Cairngorm Plateau - Ben Macdui

Coire an Lochain Cliffs

Heading toward  Goat track - Cairngorm Summit behind

A nice sunny day

Stable spring snow conditions at lower altitudes; a cooler snowpack with localised instabilities at higher shaded elevations. 

Heather hopping required at 600 metres

Great ski touring on spring snow

Mild and dry

Good snow cover, with sun crust developing.

The weak facet layer is still presenting a weak snowpack especially in areas of steep convex terrain.  Careful route finding and spacing is needed in these areas.

Better Weather

Looking toward the Northern Corries  - Sneachda and Coire Lochain

Areas of deep poorly bonded windslab are present on many W through N to E aspects above 600 metres especially on steep convex slopes  - good route finding skills required

Avalanche crown wall and debris from triggered avalanche at 700m altitude on  a North -West aspect.
deep instabilities will persist with steep areas and convexities especially affected.

Heavy Snowfall and Severe Drifting

Conditions at 600m BBC sound recordist Chris with mike.

Very severe drifting and poor visibility with a clear avalanche hazard today especially high up

Very cold with much lighter winds today

Good cover after recent storm snow, hard going underfoot unless your on the main trod.

Buttresses looking very wintry. 

Poor visibility, cold with spindrift

Ciste Crag.  Strong winds with plenty of spindrift blowing around.

Looking up the Ciste Gully, poor visibility with plenty of snow

The weather began to improve by early afternoon but still plenty of drifting even at 550m

Busy Cairngorm day

A break in the clouds at 1000m reveals a busy ski area.

Great ski touring between banks of cloud

But not much fun for the ski tourer at the saddle with a broken ankle.

A glimpse of the Northern Corries

Pea soup for most of the day above 900m.

Visibility at last

Cold, Calm and Wintry

Skiing on the hard windslab at the top of Corrie Raibert

Looking to Stacan Dubha and  Carn Etchachan.

less snow about than you would imagine - generally firm snow conditions  and scoured on the plateau

Blizzards over the highlands

Deep drifts are developing even at lower altitudes. These photo's were taken at around 800 metres.  The new windslab is weakly bonded.  The forecast is for heavier snow with strong winds overnight and tomorrow.

Thawing at lower levels

The thaw hasn't affected the snow cover too much.  The crags are generally snow covered and large snowfields still exist down to 600 metres.

Avalanche day

Drifting on Beinn Mheadhoin

Fiacaill Buttress

Although the snow distribution looks fairly lean on this Easterly aspect in Sneachda there were two avalanche incidents both within a short space of time today with crown wall of up to and over one foot in height.   People were carried down on both occasions through particularly unpleasant terrain, but thankfully everyone survived to tell the tale.  Thanks fo Glenmore Lodge instructor "Kevin" for the photo's.

Fiacaill buttress

Needles and graupel

Very poor visibility today so no panoramic views.  Instead here's a close up shot of the most recent windslab.  A combination on needles, seen above and graupel seen below, both aid snowpack instabilities.