Incoming rain!
11th April 2022
Rain expected during Tuesday morning, all the way up to summit level, too.
Falling ice, rocks and cornices are all potential objective dangers during the wet, thaw conditions.
(Above) L to R: Raeburn’s Gully, Pinnacle Buttress, Easy Gully (partially obscure), and the Post Face of Coire Ardair. Falling ice observed from Last Post (the wide smear of ice centre of photo and halfway up Easy Gully) at 1230hrs. Was cold overnight but much milder later today, with really quite strong SE winds above 800m.
Wild swimming advisory: Lochan a Choire (in the photo above) was 4.7° C. at lunchtime today.
(Above) The Window, the bealach at 940m, high above the Inner Coire of Coire Ardair. The snow cover is ‘steady and holding’ above 850m at Creag Meagaidh, at least for the time being! Some depletion is expected with the onset of rain at all levels on Tuesday.
(Above) Moist, thin older windslab in places on the approach to The Window. Elsewhere at this altitude, the exposed old snowpack is prevalent.
(Above) ‘Rotting’ ice on the south-facing side of the Inner Coire. Quite a lot of tinkling noises this afternoon when some of this fell off after exposure to sunlight and rising temperatures. Cornice collapse was also observed – from an older cornice – above Bellevue Buttress today.
(Above) The NNE-facing crags of the Inner Coire. ‘The Sash’, ‘The Wand’ and ‘Diadem’ prominent but with thin/sketchy ice development. ‘Cinderella’, a low-grade gully, is complete and on the far right of the photo.
(Above) Cornices. This one (located nr the summit of Stob Poite Coire Ardair) is south-facing and more recently formed than most we have at Creag Meagaidh at the moment. Note the scouring and wisps of spindrift being carried on the strengthening SE wind. A minor amount of thin new windslab formed on some NW aspects as a consequence of this drifting but accumulations were thin and dispersed in their distribution.
(Above) A peek into Easy Gully on the Post Face. Falling ice here as well today. The gully itself is complete with very little (read as, nil) evidence of foot or ski traffic.
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