UKC

snow rollers- how common?

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llechwedd 15 Jan 2014
Living in Snowdonia I'd never seen these

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_roller

until I was ascending Buachaille Etive Mor from Beag one April.
There were tens of them, up to about 2' in diameter on each steep snow slope.

Are they as rare as the article suggests?
Common sense tells me that, as localised sloughing, they are indicative of an instability, but how do they link to avalanche risk?
 thedatastream 15 Jan 2014
In reply to llechwedd:

I've seen them frequently in winter in the Dales/Lakes/Highlands/N. Wales although none were as impressively large as the photos on Wikipedia.
llechwedd 15 Jan 2014
In reply to thedatastream:

I should be more specific- they weren'y the snowbally broad ones- these were only 3-4" wide but~ 2' diameter.

Strange that they gathered diameter quite successfully yet didn't gather width at the same time.
 thedatastream 15 Jan 2014
In reply to llechwedd:

That is pretty impressive
 kwoods 15 Jan 2014
In reply to llechwedd:

Also known as sun balls I believe? Seen huge ones (about foot across) after heavy snowfall at the end of May followed by intense hot sun in the afternoon. Whole slope seemed to be melting...
llechwedd 15 Jan 2014
In reply to kwoods:

Thanks.
'Sun Balls'- Just googled that and found all sorts of crap, but eventually good old UKC gets a mention:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=488527.

I quite liked the alternative whimsy mentioned therein- 'Snow snails'
 kwoods 15 Jan 2014
In reply to llechwedd:

"I've seen them more than 6' tall on one occasion on ben alder, the weight would be immense and they trundle down faster than you could run."

Eek. You learn something new every day! Scary stuff, never heard of them that big.
llechwedd 15 Jan 2014
In reply to kwoods:

> "I've seen them more than 6' tall on one occasion on ben alder, the weight would be immense and they trundle down faster than you could run."

> Eek. You learn something new every day! Scary stuff, never heard of them that big.

Straying from the pinwheel things that I saw - that's nothing!
Snowballs faster than a stag can run, apparently.

"There is another tale... sweeping off the steep slopes to leave a huge snowball besides their cottage. When it was broken open it produced three brace of ptarmigan, six hares, four brace of grouse a blackcock, a pheasant, three geese and two fat stags" ( Hamish's Mountain Walk, p158- just happened to have a copy at hand, honest).
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