UKC

Hello,

I was wondering if anybody has prodded the turf in the Southern Highlands? Particularly Beinn an Dothaidh and Arrochar. I saw that people logged routes on the Cobbler on Saturday... Mainly curious as to whether the turf was frozen or just totally buried.

Thanks

NMM

In reply to Northern Mountain Monkey:

I just popped up the north ridge of Beinn Achaladair today and went for a hill walk. Plenty of neve around, some ice, pretty good turf where the wind's been scouring it - quite a lot of spots - but also lots of soft deep drifts and large fluffy cornices. Bit of a mixed bag, but wouldn't have been half bad as a climbing day. A party went in to Meall Buidhe but I couldn't see how they were getting on. Dothaidh looked to have the most snow in the range. Bound to have been something good to do there today. It warmed up later on this afternoon though.

In reply to Northern Mountain Monkey:

I was on the Cobbler on Saturday too, turf wasn't frozen but there was fun ice to play on. Don't tell anyone, but Udlaidh should be on the radar as well...

In reply to jonnie3430:

That very thought crossed my mind ref Udlaidh during my day out on Stob Garbh/Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean today.....kinda regretted not having a pair of axes on me for a wee play.

In reply to Joak:

Sorry I missed you! - I was on Ben More and Stobinian. Lot of ice underfoot in places and plenty of nice neve to play about on.

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:
That was us. Most of the route (echo edge) was scoured - major wading lower down tho - and the exposed turf was solid and great to climb on.
Hope you had a good day.

In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

Aye a wee stolen rostered rest day, cracking weather AM, cloud started to thicken and lower around 1300 ahead of the approaching front. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of water ice I saw today. Enjoyed a nice day on Vorlich and the Stuc on Saturday. A wee bit of ice underfoot but what I did find slightly alarming was the amount of Graupel I came across on the NE Buttress. Bumped into Dave Hewitt on the summit of the Stuc. Backshift the morra, in light of the new DD limits I'd better put the cork back in the bottle.
Slainte mhath.

In reply to Joak:


Nice to have met you up there, Mr Joak. You and your pal did well to get round both hills in those conditions - what time did you start? Lovely clearance on the way down - we had a late lunch at the top of the shoulder above the glen with fine views for 90 mins or so - then it started to rain about five minutes before we got back to Edinample, so that was good timing. (Your summit prediction of poor stuff arriving by 3pm was bang on - you should get a job at the Met Office.)

I was out yesterday too - just an Ochils loop but was struck by how firm the snow was on the eastern aspects eg on AGH and the short cut across to Ben Cleuch (there was almost nothing visible on the SW-facing aspects as seen from Stirling). Quite a lot of water ice on the Ochils, too. Good conditions for the Walshes but was half-wishing I was higher and in the boots and crampons. Remains to be seen what it's like after these couple of milder days - sounds like it'll thin out further (Vorlich/Stuc/Ledi looking streaky this morning), but what remains will have improved and could be very good by the weekend. And we're already a couple of days into the longer evenings, hooray.

In reply to Dave Hewitt:


Are we? Can the evenings start drawing out before midwinter somehow?

In reply to mac fae stirling:

Hi Mac, good to meet you. Glad Echo Edge was good; nice looking line

In reply to TobyA:


Yep - evenings turn on/around 14 Dec (at this latitude, anyway). Mornings don't turn until on/around 28 Dec, but the rate they decline is initially still faster than the rate the evenings start to drift out, so the actual shortest day doesn't happen until 21/22 Dec. This is neither the earliest sunset nor the latest sunrise - it's not symmetrical, basically. Think how dark it still feels in the mornings just after Christmas - that's because it is still getting darker in the mornings at that stage. Of course the change is initially so small at either end that cloud cover / clear sky is more of a factor in terms of the precise length of day in practical on-hill terms.

(A couple of years ago one of the meteorologists on the BBC forecast said, on 21 Dec, "The evenings will now start drawing out". The professionals should know better and that had me shouting at the TV!)

In reply to Dave Hewitt:

OK - sorry to drag this away from Southern Highland conditions; I love the Southern Highlands! - but is this effect not because of where we are in our timezones? i.e. Noon is an artificial construct except for those who live in Greenwich or on that line of Longitude?

I used to pay a lot of attention to change in daylight when I lived in Finland because obviously being further north (Helsinki is about on a level with Lerwick), the affects are even bigger than in Southern Scotland or England.

In reply to Dave Hewitt:

Hi Dave, we departed my car around 0830. Plan A was to do something around Glen Coe, Ballachulish. Some big snow flakes falling from a sombre sky as we drove through Strathyre persuaded us to stay a wee bit further south and east. Aye the clearance came as we reached the foot of the NE Buttress, so we had a leisurely brew break soaking up the views. The day ended exactly as it had begun with a heavy snow shower about twenty minutes from the car. If the current freeze thaw weather pattern continues we could be in furra stoater o a season.

In reply to TobyA:


Don't think longitudinal timezones are a factor - it'll be skewed right the way around the world. The further south you are the bigger the gap - eg here's a piece about the situation in New York, where the earliest sunset appears to be 7 Dec:
http://earthsky.org/tonight/earliest-sunset-today-but-not-shortest-day

and here's discussion concerning the situation in the wilds of Surrey, where the earliest sunset is 12 Dec:
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-201385,00.html

Further north and it closes right up, I think - eg by the Arctic Circle there's not going to be much difference between earliest sunset / shortest day / latest sunrise, although the overall rate of daylight change is greater the further north you go. There's loads of stuff online about this - it's partly to do with the fabled equation of time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time

In reply to Joak:


We were about an hour later than you in starting to walk - dragging myself out of bed at 7am in the cold and dark felt hard enough. Like you we intended going further west (Sgiath Chuil from Auchessan was Plan A), but the west looked murky and the road suddenly worsened on that long run-in down to Lochearnhead, so we quickly changed plans. The Stuc is always a pretty good Plan B, and I'm very fond of that old out-of-fashion approach from Edinample, whether for Stuc or Vorlich or both.

In reply to Joak:

Haha are only UKCers allowed out at the moment? Was nice to meet you on Beinn Tulaichean, felt a great steal of a day, with proper sunshine and was still back in the office by 3 to get some work done.

Nothing useful to add conditions wise sorry, guessing it's been noticeably warmer today inland as it certainly has been on the coast.

In reply to Northern Mountain Monkey:

Anyone been out / driving by these hills? How were they looking? Thinking of getting out tomorrow but i'm not sure where to go after the thaw.

In reply to aldo56:

Blustery snow shower hitting my front door as I type (170M allt, 2 miles south of Falkirk) and the Ben More webcam looking good