Creag Meagaidh Blog & Mountain Info

(Above) The upper Spey near Laggan in Badenoch today. (Badenoch – translation from Gaelic: ‘The Drowned Lands’). Appropriately named. The water in view here has come exclusively from the catchment immediately north of Creag Meagaidh. It’s been a wet few days and not surprisingly SEPA had a flood warning for this part of the Spey.

(Above) The Ardverikie estate Gatehouse with its own (partial) moat today. The A86 to the right and Sron a Ghoire in the background.

(Above) The Big Picture. Sron a Ghoire, The Window and part of Coire Chriochairein all with now quite patchy snow cover. Was dry during the morning which was a bit of a surprise but the rain returned later. Very mild all day.

(Above) The Allt Coire Ardair was bankfull and quite lively after several days of snow melt and heavy rainfall.

(Above) Watery theme continues in Easy Gully. The ‘mare’s tail’ waterfall is the location for ‘Last Post’, one of Creag Meagaidh’s signature ice routes. A lot of free water visible in all other Post Face gullies, too.

(Above) The Window above the Inner Coire in Coire Ardair. The mucky-looking debris on the snow was caused by collapsing cornices tumbling down the crags and picking up soil, vegetation and rock fragments on its journey down to the floor of the coire.

Snow line is now pinned back up to around 850m though some gullies have snow as low as circa 700m. Good stability everywhere today despite the wetness of the snowpack.

Some snowfall in the forecast but it’s not expected to create problems since what does fall out of the sky and get blown around by the wind is likely to end up as thin deposits on bare ground.