900m cloudbase
22nd January 2017
(Above) Looking towards the Carn Liath massif from Laggan, with the River Spey below. Cold with a 900m cloudbase all day.
(Above)Â Coire Dubh – detail. Patchy cover and what exists is tightly bonded, firm snow.
And yet….
Debris from a minor full depth avalanche in Coire Dubh noted this morning. Just visible near the centre skyline. Very steeply inclined rocky slabs on an ENE aspect. Estimated release during the late afternoon yesterday. Approx dimensions 10-15m across and running out 125m.
The Post Face has innumerable steep benches and ledges with isolated areas of snow that can produce similarly sized events. However, predicting the release of full depth avalanches is, for the time being, some way beyond our knowledge base and skill set.
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James
22nd January 2017 11:35 pm
I would agree with the afternoon assessment – that slide had not happened yesterday morning. I was off the mountain by about 11am on Saturday and no evidence of it. The smaller rockfall / slide on the LHS of the coire in your photo was there already though.
meagaidhadmin
23rd January 2017 12:15 pm
Hi James,
Great to get verification of these events from others. Really helpful narrowing down the actual release time. In the long term this sort of data should improve our understanding of these events.
Very many thanks for your observations and comment.