Cairngorm Reports
(Sponsored by
Talisman Winter
Mountaineering updated
15/02/2005)
To shorten download time the previous Cairngorm reports have been
archived on 30th November 2004 and can be found here
For full weather details see Geoff Monks weather reports for the East
Highlands here or
West here
(Adobe PDF reader required)
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| SAIS at work...! |
Unusual snow
formations... |
13th February 2005...Heavy overnight snow made
road travel difficult. The Glenmore snow gates were closed and the ski
area stormbound so we had the place almost to ourselves. Surprising the
road to the Ciste and the Cas were quite thinly covered in snow and the
SAIS were able to drive up in a standard car without to much
difficulty...! Also the north winds were a lot less than we'd expected and
we had a great day exploring the snow drifts, digging shelters and
climbing through cornices. There are lots of deep drift in sheltered
hollows and gullies although many north facing slopes are wind scoured
down to old neve. Checkout the SAIS
Category 4 avalanche forecast
here
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| Winter skills group
1 |
Winter skills group
2 |
Saturday 12th February 2005...Good and
extensive skiing this morning until the wind and snow showers arrived
around midday. The winds weren't as bad as expected though but as can be
seen from the photos it was definitely wintry in the afternoon. Our winter
skills and winter mountaineering groups learned a lot about windslab as
the scoured slope we were ice axe braking on quickly built up a worrying
depth of fresh slab in a very short period of time. I couldn't get any
photos of the corries due to whiteout conditions at times. Strengthening
winds and category 4 avalanche risk forecast for tomorrow so take extra
care...
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| road blocked! |
Coire Cas 17:00 hrs
10/2005 |
Thursday 10th February...The January storms
have arrived a month late!! Very stormy with blizzard conditions and snow
to low levels... It's a whiteout outside my house at the moment... The
fresh snow is being blown onto lee slopes and sheltered hollows on south-westerlies
today and tomorrow on southerlies with a brief rise in temperature so the
main gully lines in the Northern Corries will probably be highly
avalanche prone. Many areas are wind scoured though. Checkout the SAIS
Category 4 avalanche forecast
here
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| Northern Corries 8th Feb 05 |
Carpark snowholes 8th Feb 05 |
8th February 2005...Ski road re-opened today with vastly improved cover
on the slopes due to the southerly winds drifting snow onto north aspects.
The climbing gullies and coire headwalls look as if they've caught a good
bit of the snow. There were even snow holes next to the carpark today
which saves an hour and a half walk! A slight thaw tomorrow with a
refreeze later should improve climbing conditions for the future...
7th February 2005...Lots of knee deep fresh snow in the
Cairngorms over the weekend made travel difficult especially if you had to
trail break. The plateau has good cover too as there was very little wind
when the snow fell. Today it's still very cold and the winds are from the
south. This is good news as for the first time this season snow is
drifting into the Northern corries in large quantities and hopefully
filling the north facing gullies and improving the skiing. Once the
avalanche risk lowers and the snow consolidates we could have reasonable
conditions for climbing in some of the easier gully lines assuming if it
doesn't all melt away during the next warm spell. Finger crossed....!
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| Coire an t-Sneachda
6th Feb 05 |
Invernookie 6th Feb
05 |
Coire an t-Sneachda
4th Feb 05 |
Sunday 6th February 2005...Knee deep snow and poor visibility today
made travel on foot difficult. It took us almost two and a half hours of
hard slog to get to Invernookie. But as we had to trail break round
the corrie it meant we had the place to ourselves! Despite the depth of
the snow on the approach and on the climb it seemed relatively stable
although this will change as the winds come from the SW on Monday. The
old snow provided good axe and crampon placements UNDER the 30cm or so of
fresh snow 70% of the time although we could have done with some ice...
Fiacaill Couloir and the Ridge have a good depth of fresh snow
although I'd avoid the gully until it consolidates. The gullies on the
other NW side of the corrie have very little depth or even a base of old
snow. The plateau has good cover and with most of the rocks buried so ski
touring should be good. Even the ski area looks ok.
Saturday 5th February 2005...Forgot the camera today but winter has
returned with fresh snow down to Aviemore. It's been calm in the mountains
so there has been very little drifting with an overall cover of about 4 or
5 inches in the Northern Corries. I was pleasantly surprised at how
quickly the blue ice had built up on one of the high NE crags that had
retained a base of old snow giving a nice grade 3 ice pitch and a bomber
ice screw! Other areas such as NW aspects without a base of old snow
cementing in the loose rubble are best avoided until the snow
consolidates...
2nd February 2005...There's been substantial
snow loss since the weekend leaving many of the NW slopes and gullies
completely bare. The photo of Coire an t Sneachda was taken in the morning
when it had a dusting of overnight snow so it looks more wintry than it
is. There's no snow in Jacob's or Aladdin's gullies. Some easterly aspects
still have good cover. On the the plateau the snow and rocks are still
very icy in places especially from Cairn Lochain to Ben MacDui making safe
travel slow due to the verglassed rock... Winter route choice is very
limited... The forecast cold weather for this weekend can only improve
things!
31st-30th January 2005...It was a lot warmer
today (Monday) and the ski area was closed on due to high winds and ice?
Another spate of bad accidents on the icy snow on Sunday and crampons were
required from about 3,000 ft upwards. Care required especially on the Goat
Track, crampons and good technique essential...
29th January 2005...The forecast was for low
cloud and drizzle, we got blue skies and sunshine and I'm not complaining!
The Cairngorms were entombed in ice and sparkling white in the sun. The Northern
Corries very busy with climbers and unfortunately MR helicopters after a
spate of accidents. Climbing
conditions have improved but build-up is still very poor on westerly and
north westerly aspects which have thin crusty cover of ice over softer
snow. The Mirror direct and
some of the other icefalls were climbed over the last week but are harder
than normal!
23rd January 2005...Back from some great ice
climbing in La Grave... Drummochter Pass from the car. Cold with snow
showers to low levels though not enough for low level x-country skiing.
Will report on local Cairngorm climbing conditions later.
7th January 2005...We're off ice climbing in
France so this page will not be updated again until the 23rd January 2005
when hopefully climbing conditions will have improved!
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| Coire Cas 09:30 hrs
6th Jan' 05 |
Winter belay
practise 6th Jan '05 |
6th January 2005...Just getting over a cold!
It's been very wet and windy over the past few days with large day by day
fluctuations in temperature. Still snow for our ongoing winter skills and
mountaineering courses but choice is rather limited due to the high winds.
Very little in the way of decent winter climbing or skiing.
2nd January 2005...The best cover of the
season so far with lots of deep drifting snow causing problems on the
roads. There's 8 inches of snow on my garden table and the ski trails at
Slochd are well and truly filled. Unfortunately it looks like a lot of it
will melt tomorrow before the return of colder air... High avalanche risk
in the mountains so take care.
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| Sun and Snow! |
Northern Corries! |
Winter Climbing! |
31st December 2005...Cold and sunny with very strong westerlies in the
afternoon. A great day to be out and about climbing....! Coire an
t-Sneachda and Coire an Lochain looked ALMOST completely bare but there
are still large patches of old snow on the plateau and on easterly
aspects...
Happy New Year
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| 29th December at
10:00am |
700 metres 30th Dec
at 13:30 hrs |
30th December 2005...After the past two days
thaw we have a net snow gain but only just! The weather forecast for
yesterday was for high winds and heavy rain so we got the winds but it
turned out to be a pleasant dry day with glimpses of sun on our local
crag. Today should have been dryer and colder but was very WET with the
temperature only starting to drop after 14:30 when we then had snow
showers to below 700 metres. What will tomorrow bring, hopefully refrozen
snow and a good climb...
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| Snow shelters |
Definitely wintery... |
28th December 2004...Back to winter again with minus 6 Celsius on the
plateau and severe windchill. Fresh drifting snow and windslab on east to
north easterly aspects building... Some of the upper snow fences are
almost buried with fresh snow but again most areas are still wind scoured.
Aviemore and the main roads are very slippery...
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| North towards
the Cas carpark |
Some snowy
scrambling |
27th December 2004...An overnight thaw and
strong south westerlies today stripped the superficial snow cover leaving
only the higher and deeper north east through to south east aspect white.
Fortunately the winds weren't as bad as forecast and the heavy rain didn't
materialise until we were safely back down in Aviemore... We had more than
enough soft snow for ice axe arrests and some snowy scrambling today. The
main climbing areas looked very black. As we descend around 15:00 hrs
there were light snow flurries at 3,000 ft and the temperature in the
Corries Cas carpark was down to 3 degrees Celsius so it's getting colder
again and the snow pack should firm up nicely...
26th December 2004...The main A9 is now clear
but the back roads on high level routes are snow covered. Electricity
power off so typing by candlelight on laptop...! About 4 inches of snow on
the Slochd ski tracks made for mixed thin and sticky Nordic skiing
conditions but they were complete and good in places. Glenmore's Nordic
ski tracks and Heron's field looked a lot thinner but was very busy with
families sledging on the snow scrapped grass. Most of the fresh snow on
Cairngorm has either been blown off or over to eastern aspects but it was
hard to see due to low cloud. The ski area top tows were running today I
believe...
24th December 2004...Light snow down to
Aviemore giving a Xmas feel. Despite the big thaw in the middle of
the week Cairngorm Mountain seem to have managed to get the Ciste ski run
open! The thinly covered North facing climbs were stripped very quickly
but the east facing snow drifts have survived on the upper mountain and
have now frozen solid.
Merry Xmas
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| A partially frozen
Loch Morlich |
Snow cover on
Eastern Aspects |
View from our
Snowhole |
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| Drifts
in the ski area traverse |
Sunday 19th December 2004...Beautiful sunny
day and minus 16 Celsius meant I had difficulty getting into the car this
morning but on arriving in balmy Aviemore the temperature was only minus
10! We wanted to check out the snow depth in a few choice locations for
snow-holing and found several drift sites with at least three metres in
depth. This was more than sufficient for a full sized group shelter. It'll
be buried by tomorrow though! On returning to Coire Cas the winds had pick
up from the west giving severe wind chill and drifting reasonable amounts
of fresh snow into the traverse and M1 runs in the ski area. A few skiers
were having fun on the fresh powder and soft slab on the eastern aspects
of Cairngorm. Enough for local ski diehards but a lot more is required...
Apart from the harder rock routes the climbing still isn't that great with
the easier gully lines not really in condition unless you call dry-tooling
on loose snow covered rubble and soft turf fun... Despite warnings of
skittle alleys there were several nasty rock fall incidents over the
weekend. On the plus side Loch Morlich and the ground water is now
starting to freeze and it's all looking good for Xmas...
Saturday 18th December 2004...I took lots of
good photos today, unfortunately I forgot to put my Sony memory stick back
in the camera the last time used it...! Snow cover on the walk in to Coire
an t-Sneachda was fairly thin until about the 3,000 foot level. There was
a reasonable depth and cornice formation on east facing aspects allowing
us to excavate emergency snow shelters, fall through cornices and practise
shear tests...
The Coire had some very large groups of
climbers on several routes. In fact we counted at least twenty in and
around the bottom of a very thin Jacob's Ladder...skittle alley springs to
mind as the loose rubble and blocks in the gully can't be that well
cemented in! Teams were on the Message, Pot of Gold, Hybrid/Melting Pot?
Hidden Chimney, Pygmy Ridge, Fluted Buttress, Fingers Ridge, Goat
Track/Red Gully? and more. Fiacaill Ridge looked busy though I didn't spot
anyone on the Fiacaill Buttress area from our vantage point. The snow
drifts consist of very soft windslab which doesn't support much body
weight. Despite the drifting the north facing gullies are still very thin.
No doubt the east and south east facing slopes have a good depth and
require caution. We just need the winds to come from the south and
blow the snow into the north facing gullies with a bit of a freeze thaw
and we're in business. The turf is still very soft in many places. The ski
road was very icy this evening with several cars skidding off the road so
take care...
Friday 17th December 2004...It's been snowing
quite heavily on at off today to low levels. With snow now down to
Aviemore and the back roads slippery it's all looking very festive. The
Cairngorms have been white for several days with the snow drifting in the
strong winds. Hopefully this will pack a good depth into the gullies and
sheltered hollows to form a base for the Xmas/New Year and some winter
fun. The ground and snow are still very soft but the Ptarmigan and I
are happy again as we wont look out of place with our white feathers and
ice axes! Trail breaking could be hard work...
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| Fiacaill Ridge on
Sunday |
Ptarmigan in Winter
Camouflage! |
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| Ice Axe Practise
for Aconcagua! |
Loch Avon on Sunday |
11th-12th December 2004...Saturday turned out
to be a fine sunny dry day. With the temperature well below zero on the
plateau it gave us the opportunity to practise our crampon techniques on
the hard icy snow patches on Cairngorm's drift sites for Robin's trip to
climb Aconcagua in the New Year. Sunday was milder, more cloudy yet
felt much colder due to the wind chill from the fresh southerly winds.
Again this gave us the chance to further practise our axe and crampon
skills on the softer snow and dig an emergency snow shelter before
enjoying our lunch over looking the Shelterstone and Loch Avon...!
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Coire an Lochain 10th Dec 04 |
Remaining snow
patches 9th Dec! |
10th December 2004...Sunny spells and light
drizzle today. Coire an Lochain is not in winter condition and the turf
won't be frozen tomorrow...!
9th December 2004...A lovely sunny BUT WINDY
day on the plateau with the remaining patches of old snow hard frozen.
Nothing for climbing or skiing... :-(
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| Coire an Lochain |
Plateau snow patch |
Sunset from
Cairngorm summit |
Sunday 5th December 2005...A dramatic change from Thursday with very
little snow remaining in the corries and certainly nothing to climb. A few
isolated patches of snow still remain on the plateau and these were frozen
today giving good practise in step cutting...
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| Red sky
in the morning warning... |
Walk in
to Coire an t-Sneachda |
Fiacaill Buttress catching the sun |
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| Plane
vapour trail warning... |
1st
pitch Finger Ridge |
Donnie
on 3rd pitch Finger Ridge |
2nd December 2004...A frantic phone call at 23.00hrs, the weathers
breaking, it won't last until the weekend, our last chance of a
climb tomorrow, get packed, pick you up at 08.00 hrs!
The weather warning
signs were all there, the 'red sky in the morning, the shepherd's warning', the plane vapour trails signifying moisture in the air and the wispy mares
tails indicating the approach of a front. But in the meantime, the weather was perfect, cold, calm and sunny.
On the walk in we saw several teams heading towards the Mess of Pottage,
Aladdin's and the Fiacaill areas to attempt the harder rocky lines. We
also saw some folk in the easier gully lines which don't have a base or
any build-up over the loose rubble! The coldish weather and two days frost
hadn't been long enough or hard enough as the turf was still soft with little ice
development and a thinnish covering of crusty snow. The rocks were rimed
and the cracks not badly iced so it had to be a rocky route. Donnie and
Pete had the same idea and were there first. Good photo opportunity for WinterNet
though!
Today Friday is warm and damp...:-(
1st December 2004...A bright frosty day with
the Cairngorm's glistening white in the sunshine as seen from the plane!
Thursday looks the same but the hoped for high pressure area (for the
coming weekend) is now looking unlikely to happen. Virtually all forecast
charts now indicate a progression of depressions passing north of
Scotland, bringing frequent upland gales, and rain and showers in across
most parts of Britain – but especially to Scotland. Generally mild. See
Geoff Monks forecast
:-(
30th November 2004...There's been wet snow on
the Cairngorms since Saturday but the temperature are still surprisingly
high with only slight overnight frosts during the past few days at lower
levels. There's been some drifting on southern slopes and certainly more
snow depth than last weekend. The turf is only slightly frozen on the
highest tops and is very soft, oozing and mushy in many places. The
forecast looks promising with the freezing level lowering and more snow
forecast...
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