The Coire of The People
14th February 2025
(Above) The Post Face of Coire Ardair this morning. Beautiful day with some palpable warmth in the sun after midday. In fact, the first ‘warm car day’ for me this winter season. (Explanation: Finally enough warmth in the sun to warm up the inside of my parked car after a day on the hill. A personal waymark indicating the beginning of the shift in the seasons from winter towards spring.) It was pretty baltic in the shade though where the snow surface temperature was -6.8 degrees C. at 900m late morning.
(Above) Just one of the several groups of winter hillwalkers on our patch today, this a friendly group from Ireland en route to ‘The Window’ centre of shot and enjoying the excellent overhead & snow conditions. The Creag Meagaidh car park was full when I left in the afternoon.
(Above) Plenty of folk on steeper stuff too. Easy Gully and one of Creag Meagaidh’s signature ice routes, ‘Last Post’.
(Above) Pinnacle Buttress, Easy Gully and the Post Face. Broader context of the previous shot.
(Above) Inset. Climbers on ‘Centre Post’ and one on the approach to ‘Staghorn Gully’.
(Above) The Inner Coire of Coire Ardair with the high bealach, ‘The Window’, far right.
(Above) Inset detail. Part of the NNE-facing crags of the Inner Coire of Coire Ardair.
(Above) More inset detail. Inner Coire NNE-facing crags again. Climbers visible on ‘Glass Slipper’ centre of shot.
(Above) Plenty of evidence of facetting at the moment, mainly in near-surface layers with little overburden and hence low hazard. These top layers came away in dinner plate chunks in some places on steep ground.
(Above) Cornice line over the top of the E to ESE aspects of Coire a Chriochairean. There are still a few old cornices around, most are firm and frozen but should always be treated with caution due to their fickle, unpredictable nature. Most affected locations are very steep N to SE aspects.
Expecting a few snow flurries for a couple of hours in the morning, blown in on light ESE winds. Don’t think they will amount to much and unlikely to bring much change to current snow and avalanche conditions.
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Matthew Hay
14th February 2025 5:22 pm
Lovely photos – are climbing conditions quite good at the moment then, despite the lean snowpack? Looks to be plenty of water ice about. Also has the lochan in Coire Ardair frozen yet?
meagaidhadmin
14th February 2025 5:45 pm
The SAIS has a policy of not making qualitative comments about winter climbing conditions since they can, at times, be quite subjective and debatable and is a task better left to mountain guiding agencies. What I can say though is that Raeburn’s Gully, Easy Gully, Last Post, Centre Post, Staghorn Gully and Glass Slipper were all ascended today by one or more teams of climbers.
The lochan was frozen over this morning but part of it was ice-free when I left in the early afternoon.
David Gordon
15th February 2025 7:28 am
Are snow shoes handy or is it the case not enough snow for these and too much for simple boots and grips ?
meagaidhadmin
15th February 2025 8:04 am
Decent winter boots and crampons (+ ice axe) are the order of the day. Snow shoes would be overkill at the moment!