UKC

Hey all,
Has anyone been up the Lawers road over the last couple of days? Is it accessible? If so, how much snow cover is there on Tarmachan, and on The Lawers range?
Cheers

In reply to crustypunkuk:
Not been up Lawers since Christmas day (plenty snow then), so cannot comment on the road today. However, I live not too far as the crow flies, at the end of a single track hill road also and it's been pretty dire. Most times I've left the house, I've usually had to tow a car out of a ditch, saying that, the gritter arrived yesterday for the first time and threw down a lot of salt )
The hills here have a pretty good covering, ranging from deep powder to hard neve, depending on what local wind conditions have been doing, plenty of ski marks also. Lawers and its neighbours look pretty loaded up when viewed from other Perthshire Munros.

In reply to crustypunkuk: Drove past the road end on sat afternoon (17th), definitely not clear then, in fact a couple of cars were dumped at the bottom. Lawers and Tarmachans totally plastered though. Could be wrong, but I reckon if anything there may be even more snow on both road and hills now.

In reply to DH3631:

Aye, that's what I thought. Probably best not to risk it, my car ain't the best in the snow! Looks like I'll be staying east tomorrow then!
Cheers to both of you for the info.

In reply to crustypunkuk:
We maaged to drive to Inverver in Glen Lyon on Saturday - snow and ice covered all the way but we made it ok in our Kia c'eed but had to park on roadside. Only one hilly part but local farmer showed us where the grit was and gritted it for us so we made it up no problem.
Lots of deep snow on the hills - made for very hard walking as breaking trail all the way.

In reply to BedRock:

Thanks for that. I might head up and have a look. If I can't get up the road, I could always head further north via killin I suppose.

In reply to crustypunkuk:

Was up there last Sunday, road impassable - cars made it some way up the access road, to where the tree cover stops, after that the road was covered - no way through

Hills well blootered with snow - we walked in towards Tarmachan but chucked it due to slow progress in the deep snow, looked like if you were ski touring you were having fun, if walking you were wading

That was Sunday though, doubt the road will have cleared since but snow conditions may have firmed up since

In reply to Pids:

Thanks. I reckon the snow will be firm enough after a few days low temps and daily scouring from the wind, so it all depends on whether the road is passable or not. Ah well, nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose. Got a plan b and c in place too, so we'll see how it goes.

In reply to crustypunkuk:

For anyone that's interested, the Lawers road is one solid piece of ice all the way up. I tried to get up and failed, then watched a Landy do exactly the same. That signalled it was time to move elsewhere, so I went up Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin instead, as the south Loch Earn road was clear. Snow from the roadside to the summit. Deep and powdery low down and a bit of a slog through it, but above 7-800m it was beautiful neve all the way. The gullies on the S.E face of Stuc a Chroin are definitely 'in'.

In reply to crustypunkuk:

Cheers for the info Crusty. May have a wee play up Vorlich on Saturday.

In reply to crustypunkuk:


Are there any details of these anywhere, apart from the original SMCJ articles?

In reply to Mark Bull:

Not really sure to be honest! I can't remember where I read about them, but I definitely saw some details somewhere. I went up a couple of them 4 years ago when conditions were good, and again today, and they felt around II or III ish. As you look from the top of Vorlich, they are the two obvious white runnels to the left of Stuc a Chroin's main face. Plenty steep, but safe enough and plenty fun!

In reply to crustypunkuk:

Great, that's useful, many thanks!

In reply to crustypunkuk:
Does anyone have any recent updates on the road condition?
I am more interested in the conditions of the road towards Bridge of Balgie.
Thanks