Cairngorm Reports
(Sponsored by
Talisman Winter Mountaineering
updated 05/04/2004)
To shorten download time the previous Cairngorm reports have been archived
on 29th February 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)
30th March 2004...Still lots of snow on
Cairngorm's plateau and Northern Corries...looks good for ski touring.
Avoid great slab area and other spring avalanche hot spots though...
29th March 2004...Report from Ben Nevis...snow
level very high and rock very black:
 |
 |
 |
| NE Buttress and CIC
Hut |
Indicator Wall |
Ice Pitch on Good
Friday Climb |
 |
 |
 |
| Tower Ridge West
Flank |
Coire Na Ciste |
Green Gully No. 3
Gully Buttress |
Slightly colder on Monday with a forecast
freezing level around 1200 metres had us wandering up Observatory Gully
past a very black Tower Scoop (Ice in Tower Cleft though) to the summit of
the Britain in search of good climbable ice...we found it just... below
the summit of Ben Nevis. Not on our first choice Indicator Wall which was
far too thin and rotten but round the corner on Good Friday climb a great
wee route right up to the summit trig point with a minimal cornice to
worry about which incidentally was Fi's...it was good ;-)
Very little thick ice on the Ben...couldn't
see Smiths Route...nothing really on Orion Face or Zero where I've seen a
lot more in early summer. We couldn't see Point Five...though a couple of
young climbers who'd driven up from London were last seen heading towards
a bare Zero to climb...Point Five let me know how you got on...third time
lucky! Green Gully though was complete but hacked with a trench leading to
the start and White Line / Glovers looked ok with ice at the bottom but
bare at the chimney. Comb gully is apparently broken at the chockstone.
Number 3 Gully Buttress looked good though. Tower Ridge was bare lower
down with wet soft snow higher up and very busy... Lots of big droopy
cornices above many of the gully lines.
28th March 2004...The Wand climbed on Sunday!
25th March 2004...Report from Creag Meaghaidh:
We took a wander into Coire Ardair Inner Coire and climbed Diadem. The
access path was clear until the lochain then snow up towards the window.
Great cover on the plateau for ski touring and snowboarding! The post face
was plastered so it was hard to make out the ice on the routes...some such
as Last Post and Centre Post certainly looked ok from the distance though
no guarantees. South Pipe Direct had a nice blue ice pillar and looked
easily climbable although Pumpkin was very very thin and not fully formed.
All the easier lines were well filled with snow but many had corniced
exits.
Temperature was higher than forecasted with rain and sleet at the foot
of the route and some worrying wet snow slides and stone / moss fall off
the buttresses. The coire was pretty sheltered from the winds.
 |
 |
 |
| Easter Corner &
Raeburn's Gully |
Staghorn Gully
Direct |
The Easy Gully &
Post Face |
 |
 |
 |
| Great ice on the
Wand...! |
Diadem corner pitch |
Wand, Diadem and
Glass Slipper |
Reasonable trail breaking up the Sash on wettish snow which
consolidated instantly on kicking steps. Some minor but worrying wet snow
slides running down the gully made us almost turn back....Fiona thought
she'd been avalanched! Spindrift on the route. The Wand looked excellent
and had some good ice that would take ice screws. We elected to climb
Diadem as I hadn't climbed it for years. It looked very snowy so I thought
I could say it wasn't in nick and retire gracefully...but plan foiled...it
actually had great single swing ice axe placements and good ice after
clearing the snow underneath. The ice took one good ice screw and several
tied off screws. Good rock gear on right wall was there just where needed
or the ice thinned on the steep corner pitch...it's steeper than it looks
and feels very similar to the Wand! The final easy pitches to the plateau
had a horrible overhung cornice so were Fiona's....but thankfully they
were easily bypassed on the left exit ;-)
Very quiet with only one other party climbing in the Coire on Glass
Slipper and a couple of hillwalkers heading towards the Window.
I was actually surprised at the amount of climbable ice on Meggy as many
reports had suggested otherwise..........whether it will still be there
after the forecast milder spell and refreeze remains to be seen...nice
walk though!
23rd March 2004...Windy with lots deep of snow in the Cairngorms for
the past week or so has meant careful route selection required. All the
usual safe mixed route have been climbed such as the Message and Seam
although parties backing off classic easier lines!
 |
| Still lots of
Ice... |
18th-16th March 2004...It's been snowing again on the tops although
it's been very very stormy for the past week or so with quite mild
temperatures at times...but far from being the end of winter many of the
northern gully lines have benefited from more drifted snow than before the
storms...a definite gain especially in the ski area! We even came across a
lot of great 2/3 ice routes in the inner Cairngorms during our snow-holing
trip.
 |
| Late afternoon view
of the Northern Corries 14th March 2004 |
13th-14th March 2004...Nice bright breezy day
on Saturday with good skiing but with the winds and temperature picking up
on Sunday meant sensible route choice was required for a great day to
avoid being blown away!
 |
| Lunch in at the
snow holes |
11th-12th March 2004...Guides test...so cold
and very windy
(132 mph SE winds!) with the ski area stormbound for the past two days. Build-up of fresh windslab on
northerly aspects such as the ski road, gullies, crag aprons and headwalls
(Cat 4 avalanche risk). Large snow drifts and scoured areas will no doubt
have completely transformed the climbs and ski area. Crawling
difficult and walking impossible today on the tops...nice day in
Inverness!
10th March 2004...Since the snow falls and
Coire an Lochain avalanche at the weekend the Cairngorms have been calm
and sparkling white in the sunshine. See Tuesday's pictures showing
avalanche areas and Cairngorms snow cover on the WinterHighland site
here. Lower in the valleys many of the
small lochs are still frozen and the ground hard. In Sneachda Central,
Runnel, Crotched and Spiral are proving popular although the other easy to
mid grade icier lines are still thin apart from over in the Loch Avon
basin. Today there was a lot more cloud and strong bitter SE winds which
have been re-depositing fresh wind slab on lee slopes such as some of the
aforementioned popular NW gullies and hollows.
Over the past few days we have been over in
the west at Aonach Mor and north west on Liathach in search of ice but
were generally quite disappointed. The twins area, tunnel vision and the
area left of easy gully on Aonach Mor were good but very busy with
courses...some of the other reported climbs were falling down in the
sunshine or badly broken. On Sunday we'd heard Poacher's Fall had formed but it
looked thin and not fully formed. It didn't inspire us on the 3 hour hike up
to the wet snow and scree of the coire, although the setting is fantastic.
We climbed George instead which proved
entertaining...especially the the cave and AWKWARD bulge at the finish! In
conclusion it seems the Cairngorms have the best snow cover and the Ben
Nevis / Aonach Mor area the best ice...
 |
 |
| Cornice on Tunnel
Vision |
George..heads or
tails! |
|
 |
| Northern Corries
from Loch Morlich |
5th March 2004...Despite the milder temperatures on the Wednesday and
Thursday Loch Morlich was still frozen on Thursday afternoon and the tops
looked very white.
 |
 |
| Lots of drifting
snow! |
Windslab in
Aladdin's Couloir |
2nd March 2004...Another sunny day with
increasing south, south westerly gales. The southerly winds have been
drifting huge quantities of snow as windslab into the north facing corries
and gully lines completely altering the existing snow coverage and
avalanche risk. The fresh drift once it undergoes a melt freeze cycle
should substantially improve the climbing conditions in the easy to middle
grade routes in the northern corries. The ski area should also benefit
from the drifting snow. The avalanche risk in north, north east facing
slopes is now high in many locations....so take care.
1st March 2004...Another perfect cold sunny
blue sky day...so we went in search of some ice climbing in the Loch Avon
basin!
|
