The business end of Coire Ardair
19th January 2026
All looking quite white and wintry at the moment. Moist snow with a soft crust below 920m but much firmer, drier and colder snow above this altitude. Good stability noted in many places. There was a little drifting up high and as a consequence some thin very minor windslab development too which tended to be localised and confined to steep lee slopes above 1000m. Pretty quiet in Coire Ardair with just 6 vehicles in the car park down by the A86 first thing this morning.
Lost property. Picked up a piece of hill kit today. If you’ve lost something at Creag Meagaidh in the last two days contact me via the Comments section below and I’ll verify if it’s yours via email.
(Above) The Big Picture. Looking W towards Sron a Ghoire, the Post Face and The Window. Taken this afternoon. Visibility was quite good all day with just a few very light snow showers early in the morning. Good to see SAIS Creag Meagaidh area wearing a nice white wintry mantle.
(Above) Raeburn’s Gully, Pinnacle Buttress, Easy Gully and the Post Face of Coire Ardair. The Coire Ardair path was really quite icy this morning and micro spikes proved to be of great utility, enabling secure passage. Either side of the path there’s wet snow which was quite deep in places and covered with a minor crust.
(Above) The Pinnacle, Easy Gully and the Post Face. Winter mountaineers visible part way up Easy Gully. There’s some (historic) large chunks of what I think is cornice debris low in Easy Gully which probably came down in a previous thaw.
(Above) The steep NE-facing crags of the Inner Coire of Coire Adair seen here in profile from the summit of The Window. Contrasty transition from moist crusty snow to colder drier and denser snow above The Window.
(Above) Looking into ‘Cinderella’, a NE-facing gully in the Inner Coire. Comparatively small line here today but which may weaken overnight as the freezing level blips up towards the summits for a time. Cornices above this low grade gully can be very large indeed during sustained wintry weather and W or SW winds.
(Above) Pano shot of the NE-facing crags of the Inner Coire. The high bealach called The Window is on the far right.
(Above) 950m. A pair of climbers today close to the top of Raeburn’s Gully, a sustained steep NNE-facing gully in Coire Ardair. The climbers are resting on the crater created by the collapse of the Blue Icicle which triggered an avalanche on Sunday. 4 people were involved with one carried down but the others were uninjured and topped out of the gully. Estimate that the icicle was the size of a phone box which – not surprisingly given it’s mass – released some surface layers then ploughed and gathered more snow as it made its way down to the talus fan at the base of the gully.
(Above) Archive photo of the Blue Icicle in Raeburn’s Gully. A column of fat blue ice which occasionally creates a cave and is located close to the start of Ritchie’s Gully. Photo courtesy of UKC.
(Above) Quite a long cornice line around the N-facing rim of Coire Ardair close to Bellevue Buttress and likely to weaken overnight.
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