Snow quest: Ben Alder
15th January 2025
Embarked on a snow inventory check on SAIS Creag Meagaidh’s southern boundary, the Ben Alder area.
Spoiler alert! There isn’t much.
The obvious and fastest way in to the Ben Alder area is from Dalwhinnie and a jaunt along Loch Ericht’s NE shore on the very well made estate road, but instead I approached from the north via Loch Lagganside and Ardverike.
(Above) En route to Loch Pattack & Ben Alder. The site of Blackburn of Pattack bothy, long gone but not forgotten. Passed by and almost missed it. Stayed here several times back in the day, but was it actually a bit too close to civilisation and therefore prone to the depradations of miscreants? Was burnt down in the 1990s. The last time I stayed there I found the place devoid of internal wood panelling, allegedly torn off by a group of visiting military cadets who used it for firewood.
(Above) Found this on Flickr. The bothy as it was in January 1984. The side bar comment is quite interesting: the stag (or at least, a stag) was in residence during my final stay at Blackburn, too. Perhaps one and the same?
(Above) A terrible co-incidence. I remember Sam Crymble, an Alpine Guide and in those days an instructor at Glenmore Lodge, telling me of his part in the search for the students in Coire an Lochain. It was a very upsetting experience for him at the time and a tearful memory retelling it some years later.
(Above) The track beside Loch Pattack, and the east-facing Coire Sron an Nid with a few remnants of snow. The hills to the west of Culra seemed to have a well-defined mantle of cloud for most of the morning. Noticeably clearer a little further east.
(Above) An unrepresentative outlier. A small lens of ice in a ditch beside Loch Pattack had not yet succumbed to the sustained thaw. Here today, gone tomorrow?
(Above) The road to Culra bothy. The E aspects of Ben Alder prominent in the backdrop still have some minor snow patches tucked up around coire rims. The roof of Culra Bothy just visible lower in the shot.
(Above) Culra bothy. Remote and well-placed for hill-goers exploring Ben Alder, but…
(Above) Great pity. If true, knowing what I do about asbestos, the place ought to be carefully demolished by specialist contractors and removed in its entirety. Not a cheap operation but a drop in the ocean for a very well-heeled estate owner?
(Above) Peering in through one of the windows but from behind the safety of the glass. Looks fairly recently used. I’d say that’s defiantly ‘rolling the dice’. Utterly mind boggling.
(Above) On the return leg caught a glimpse in the distance of part of the S, SE and ESE facing aspects in Coire Ardair. We still have some snow but it’s desperately patchy and confined to locations above 850-900m. The sustained thaw means we have some very limited potential for minor full depth avalanches, mainly from steep crags.
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roger clare
15th January 2025 5:57 pm
Always interesting to learn more about familiar places, people and events. Thanks
Keith Horner
15th January 2025 6:28 pm
As a contemporary of the 3 students who died in Coire an Lochain and knowing them informally from the University Mountaineering Club, it was an equally traumatic experience as news of the tragic events progressively unfolded. At the time I was stranded at the Bridge of Orchy hotel as a result of the huge storm which swept the whole country that weekend and can only begin to imagine the horror of being out in such ferocious conditions.
meagaidhadmin
15th January 2025 7:06 pm
My memory may have corrupted this a bit but I recall Sam saying something along the lines of, ‘Young adults, in the bloom of youth, dying in sight of the Coire Cas car park’.
Heart-rending.
Alan
15th January 2025 6:37 pm
Stayed at Culra several times long long ago. Walked in once with a guy whose party had suffered badly with frostbite. Memory is dim but I think that one lost a foot. Party had wet feet & then they froze solid. I’ve tried to track down the relevant details but without success. It was probably in the sixties sometime. Thanks a lot for the reports in all weathers. Snow or no snow!
meagaidhadmin
15th January 2025 6:48 pm
A terrible tale of woe, Alan.
One of the worst was the party of 4 who died after a dramatic snow storm near the Bealach Dubh to the west of Culra on New Year’s Eve in 1951. It features in Ian Thomson’s book, ‘The Black Cloud’, ‘Scottish Mountain Misadventures 1928-1966’.
Keith Horner
15th January 2025 8:14 pm
That’s right – they failed to locate the hut and tried to retrace their steps back to the car park into the teeth of storm but progressively collapsed one by one – I recall two being found very close to the car park. The tragedy led to the removal of Jeans Hut later that year.