Creag Pitridh
7th February 2026
Today’s sortie took me to the flanks of Creag Pitridh and Bealach Leamhain in the Ardverikie Forest. These summits to the south of the A86 often experience different conditions to the main Creag Meagaidh massif.
Given the prolonged South-Easterlies, the West to North-West facing slopes in the area provided some isolated fresh windslab, albeit moderately bonded. Of particular interest was the presence of graupel in the snowpack. I am sure many of our readers will be familiar with these polystyrene looking balls, which are actually rime. They commonly form in cumulonimbus clouds when supercooled water freezes onto snowflakes.
Historically graupel is often talked about as a concern in the snowpack as it “creates a layer of ball bearings”. Although I can’t argue with this as a metaphor, the statement doesn’t reflect shear failure in the snowpack or the mechanism of avalanche release. Hopefully good news for hill goers in the next few days, as weaknesses are diminishing and will consolidate quickly as the freezing level fluctuates.
The most significant hazard in the next 24 hours will be that of ice and rock fall, particularly rime ice falling from the buttresses in Coire Ardair. The freezing level will be above the summits in the later part of the night, accompanied by rain and sleet at the highest levels. Later the freezing level will drop slightly creating a firm and icy snowpack at higher levels. The avalanche hazard will be low.
The sprawling mass of Beinn a’Chaorainn. The central ridge is the ‘East Ridge’ and the white looking coire is that of Coire na h-Uamha. [I recall doing this vividly on the 23rd February 2010 and skiing down the Moy Burn from the summit of Creag Meagaidh. There were deep surface hoar crystals, which subsequently resulted in a spate of avalanche incidents the following day on the 24th, when they were rapidly buried by fresh snow due to the passage of a frontal system.]
A fleeting glimpse of Meall Coire Choille-rais. The snow line is around 700 metres in this location.
A shot looking up the Allt nan Cearcall with An Cearcallach on the left. An average shot, but shared as I caught two geese (?) on their own wee sortie today (centre top).
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