Some nice days out on the hill recently albeit stormy at times. We have had a period of often strong South Easterlies which has kept the hills to low level below freezing and at times bitterly cold on the tops so its been very much a wintery period. There has been the odd snow shower but generally windy giving some quite turbulent days in the hills. I have actually always quite enjoyed being out and in wind and snow being billowed about. There is something very real and invigorating about it. I certainly love a clear wind free and icy day to with views across the Highlands but a good battering is always quite fun.
Last weekend we saw team Raferty with us for a very stormy two days in the Cairngorms. A nice loop of Cairngorm mountain with some skills along the way. Perhaps an indicator as to the snow levels at the moment was the lack of snow holes as we visited a site often popular on courses over the back of Cairngorm.
We also had a summits and skills course with Kamilla in the Cairngorms. Plenty of skills in the Cairngorms and also a good atmospheric day on Creag Meagaidh. We made an ascent via the Window a feature which leads up around the main cliffs and up to an old iron fence line that acts as a divider between two large Highland estates. There was a huge amount of ice building across the Corrie and plenty of people out enjoying it to. We also had a lower day looking at some navigation around the Glenmore area and finished the week in the Cairngorms with some pretty high winds sending us down into Glen Feshie to try and escape the wind a bit although that didn’t really work as it came barreling in with some pretty heavy rain.
With the high winds this week and also some fresh snow there was a series of avalanches causing injury this week. The high winds and drifting in the Northern Cairngorms led to some nasty pockets of slab on the harder icy snow in the gully tops and rim of the crags. Despite there being relatively low amounts of snow windslab ca be very quick to build which caused some incidents where perhaps a false sense of security had been created by the general lack of snow in the mountains. It can take a very small amount of slab to have serious consequences being taken off your feet and into some very serious bouldery terrain below. It emphasises the importance of taking note of the current SAIS forecast but also very importantly is to understand the mechanics yourself while out and to understand visually and around you as to what is happening and sometimes happening very quickly around you.
Current Conditions are tricky over the weekend. For quite a while we have had stable and cold South Easterlies dominating the picture giving sub zero temperatures and relatively little precipitation but that has changed. There has been some warm and wet weather passing through which will be effecting the already thin cover. That said there should be some cooler temperatures and possible snow coming through over the coming week with potentially some freeze thaw. Hopefully the snow which has become pretty firm might have some resilience for the weekend.
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