Stellar day
10th January 2025
(Above) Crags, buttresses and gullies of the Post Face of Coire Ardair. A stellar day. Eventually – after the early morning mist cleared – we had cobalt skies, beautifully clear air, *no* wind(!) and bright winter sunshine. Very cold in the shade (all day) and some weak warmth in the sun. Not surprisingly, Creag Meagaidh was quite busy with walkers and a few climbers. Noticed a pair at the base of ‘Last Post’ – a ‘Meggie signature ice route – in Easy Gully, having a long look at the route and maybe shaping up for an ascent. Lost sight of them so can’t confirm whether it was climbed or not. There’s precious little snow-ice in our gullies at the moment but ice has been developing from the usual seep lines on crags.
(Above) Looking down the sunlit S-facing side of Coire Ardair. Careful route choice necessary when venturing away from the beaten path in Coire Ardair. Picking a line through wind-scoured heather makes for slightly less arduous upward progress. There are quite deep drifts in places, amongst others in burn lines and shallow depressions.
(Above) …Injudicious choice of line can be tiring!
(Above) The Min Window. A distinctive narrow defile at circa 950m on the Carn Liath massif that links Coire Ardair to the Min Choire in the Upper Spey catchment. Lovely in the sun but very cold snow surface temperature in the shaded area. I measured it at -10.6 Degrees C, with a minus 4.1 C. air temperature.
(Above) The very cold temperatures are encouraging the growth and preservation of weaker layers in the snowpack. There were some proto-depth hoar crystals at the base of the snowpack today which, in addition to some mid-pack facets, facilitated some easy releases and a little crack propogation during field tests.
(Above) At the moment instability is localised and confined to steeper locations above 900m – like the lee slopes above the black line in the photo – but snow is better consolidated at all lower altitudes. Expecting instability at higher altitudes to ease by the end of the day on Saturday after temperatures rise just a little.
(Above) Looking E across the Carn Liath whalebacks to Carn Liath summit. The camera lies! There are some deeper drifts but the snowcover in the foreground is a somewhat more accurate representation of what you’ll find in the far distance.
(Above) Looking down to Aberarder and Loch Laggan from close to The Min Window.
And finally.
A minor heads-up. Dry and cold overnight but we might reach a critical threshold for drifting tomorrow. It’s by no means a slam dunk but if there is some re-distribution of snow there could be a little thin windslab development onto NW to N aspects above 950m.
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Keith Horner
10th January 2025 6:49 pm
Nice insight into what seems a complex and deceptive snow pack at the moment following the prolonged cold snap – your black line would make a great zip wire?
meagaidhadmin
10th January 2025 7:31 pm
I think Monday’s weather will bring about an abrupt end to the buried weak layers.
A zip wire. Genuinely made me chuckle!
matt dalby
10th January 2025 10:52 pm
Slightly off topic but the reports of lynx being captured near Kingussie brought to mind a blog post from several years ago about a big cat being captured in someone’s garden. Am I just imagining this or did it happen and get mentioned in this blog?