Snowy and blowy
29th February 2024
(Above) My moment in the sun at 900m. Wall Gully, a useful and safe re-entrant for us, carved into the side of Sron a Coire Chriochairein. Some of the crags above Lochan a Choire visible in the distance. Sunshine was brief today as the weather was almost exclusively a sequence of frequent turbulent showers of snow and graupel, making goggles indispensible up high.
(Above) Looking east towards the summit of Sron a Coire Chriochairein (993m). Summit areas have been heavily scoured with only very sheltered accumulation zones seeing recent drifting in these and similar places. The patches of old snow near the far summit are composed of snow-ice with a developing crust which will be much icier and harder tomorrow.
(Above) Coire Chriochairein viewed from high on the south-facing coire backwall. Drifting onto east aspects here. We had a fair amount of drifting especially from mid-morning onwards, though some of the drifted snow seemed to be subliminating into the atmosphere. The stuff that landed in some lee areas was being shifted around by local winds resulting in a bit of selective lee slope scouring. Windslab was definitely building at the time of reporting but was tending to be localised in distribution and confined to areas above 950m. Drifting will continue for a time overnight before dying out completely on Friday.
(Above) Same shot but a different weather vibe. Old & new snow distribution. A lot of the white stuff in the foreground is superficial thin snow. Older snow patches are confined to N to E aspects above about 750m and are currently carrying a cover of fresh snow, with developing windslab up high of course. Might see some single point releases on Friday if the sun, as promised, manages to get its act together and offer up some warmth on E to SE aspects.
Comments on this post
Got something to say? Leave a comment
