UKC

From what I can tell - above 3000ft the snow build up on the West coast has been pretty phenomenal.. It must be several metres deep - and then some in places like Observatory Gully, Coire na Ciste, parts of the Bidnean Massif. For those with many years experience, how does this compare to previous years and what impact can this have on how late into the year the snowpack could last? I appreciate that the weather has been so bad that the upper parts of Obs Gully have been reached by very few or even places like Gully Number 3/Coire Leis.

The past few years have seen a big thaw at some point or snow fall followed by prelonged freeze, but it just seems to keep coming high up this year.

In reply to bowls:

From a skiers perspective iv certainly never seen so much snow at nevis and glencoe above 750m. glencoe are reporting 295cm of snowdepth on the upper slopes! that puts them way up the world lists on snowforecast.com!

In reply to Webster:
The summit of ben nevis normally gets to over 3 meters of compact mostly fallen snow by the end of the season but its still january. I guess we will need to wait and see if this season breaks any records.

The snow that glencoe are reporting will be mostly caught / drifted. Observatory gully will normally get much deeper drifted snow than the summit in places as will several other locations in scotland.

In reply to bowls:
According to martin morans book Scotlands Winter Mountains the factor which most effects how deep the snow on the summit of ben nevis gets is how much snow falls later in the season not earlier. Does anyone know how burried the trig point is? Ive seen this only a foot above the snow pack on several occasions and it must be around 4 meters higher than the ground around it.This snow must be mostly fallen as the summit isnt a collecting point like a gully.

The most reliable spot for persistent snow is in Garbh Coire Mor in the cairngorms where the snow has only completely melted something like 5 times in the last 100 years.

There is many factors involved in how long the snow pack can last, but the fact it has briefly rained to the level of the summit of the ben on several occasions this season and then refrozen (so I hear anyway) is good news as neve is much more resistent to heavy thaw than snow which hasnt done this. I remeber a few years back cairngorm opened for skiing on mid summers day and the way things are going I wouldnt be suprised if something like that happens in scotland this year!

Im in Aosta area just now and the depth of mostly fallen non drifted snow high up is mental. Ive never seen anything like it in the UK. Lower down italy is suffering severe flooding.