UKC

Had a good day out today. -4deg this morning and stayed around freezing all day. 4-6 inches of snow on the walk in from the car park but very good tracks. Hard going once you leave the forest and head up through the gate in the deer fence to the bottom of Corrie Fee. Unconsolidated snow to about knee depth but fortunately a party of 4 had gone ahead of me. Lots of snow everywhere but little in the way of ice.

There was a party gearing up at the bottom of Look C Gully. Would be interested to know how they found it.

I was alone so went and had a look at A Gully. It was full of snow but entirely unconsolidated. I had a fun wade up the bottom section it and it seemed to improve towards the top but I branched left and went up the rockier section. There were patches of ice just before the top out but they were fragile and I could hear water running underneath.

Top out was totally scoured and frozen and the patches of snow on top were good to walk across without sinking.

No evidence of any avalanche activity at all.

Some photos here.....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128262278@N03/
hope the link works.

In summary - A couple of good freeze thaw cycles needed (but then we all knew that already!)

In reply to Freddie 1:

We had a look at the first 20m of Look C but it was unconsolidated snow and hollow or unstuck ice as soon as you moved away from the direct line of the water - rock was black and wet under the cruddy ice. Also nearly got wiped out by a kamikaze sheep that fell down the route while we were getting up - it bounced and rag dolled down between us.
Did the rh of B gully - snow in the gully OK but the ice pitch at the top inaccessible due to thigh deep unconsolidated snow just below it. We broke out tight and followed a ramp and rib to the top. The headwall of the gully has a large amount of unconsolidated snow and a big, full depth crown wall - it looked like the whole lot had moved a couple of feet the stopped.
More freeze thaw needed, and watch out for the sheep!

In reply to hpil:

Was he ok? They seem to be able to survive big falls.

In reply to Phil1919:

It didn't move from where it stopped, but was holding its head up and looking around, so still alive at midday. Bit of blood on the way down, so we were guessing on it being not much longer for this world...

In reply to Freddie 1:

We went into Winter Corrie yesterday (Plan B as the road to Lochnagar was shut!). Not really enough snow under the crags to present an avalanche risk for approaching routes, although i'm sure the gullies wouldn't of been to friendly. Gave Wild Cat Wall a miss as there was a surprisingly large powdery cornice hanging over the top of the route (the fact it was catching the sun was the nail in the coffin). Back-up plan was Sun Rock Blues, but I came back down as the turf wasn't even nearly frozen and I thought better of it!

Ended up climbing up the side of the crag (the turf didn't get any better as you went up) and heading up to Driesh then back home! Surprisingly little snow up near the summits, very lean in places with big deposits of slab in lee slopes. Large amounts of powder on the routes seem to have insulated a lot of the turf.

In reply to CMcBain:

Up there today and it's taken a bit of a hit with the thaw. B gully was hard work in slushy snow up til below the crux which didn't look in nick. Bum slide back down.

In reply to DundeeDave:
Out of interest, what was the road like driving into Glen Clova? All easily passible or was there snow and ice on the road?

In reply to 0004537w:

Not really any snow and ice on the road on Sunday to worry about. There was though a lot of surface water. Now if this has frozen...