UKC

Thinking of going for a winter walk high in Glencoe later this week or tomorrow. Now the SAIS have finished for the season, can anyone offer any advice on what the avalanche forecast might be?

The weather looks stable and I guess the snowpack will be fairly homogenous, but how would this change on different aspects?

Thanks

Thanks

The snowpack is stable, but in the warm weather remaining cornices are detaching and bergshrunds are forming at the tops of gullies, which is also leading to more snow detaching and avalanching.

For general walking routes right now there isnt that much snow about. in SCNL for example the ridges were completly dry. The only snow was in corries.

If over the weekend, If it gets colder and pressure drops there will be some new snow, but the extend of how much is open to debate just now, and likely not any to be of any major worry but as always you should only check conditions as you go. Even without the avalance forecast you will still be able to see what direction any winds and storms are coming in from and get an idea of the windward and lee sides.

In reply to iamaclimber:

I was up at 1000 metres around Arrochar area on saturday, not really that much snow left to be honest, for the most part it was easily avoided and you would have felt quite silly in the warm sunny weather wading around in the slush with crampons and axes.

In glencoe and on the ben I'm sure the highup East -> North facing major gully lines are complete but as Milesy says unless it freezes again personally I wouldn't want to be under the remaining cornices. Later this week a refreeze is predicted with more snow coming in on a strong south westerly wind. This will load nearly all the complete gullies with wind slab and then again I wouldn't want to be in them. I doubt the majority of the tops in glencoe have full cover now (and they certainly didn't in the arrochar area) but I could be wrong.

There is still a large amount of snow in Scotland in certain mostly lee slopes and gullies but you would definitely need to seek those out.

See the webcams to get an idea of conditons
http://www.visitfortwilliam.co.uk/about-ben-nevis-in-fort-william-and-ben-n...
http://www.glencoemountain.co.uk/webcams.html
http://www.winterhighland.info/cams/cairngorm-mountain/morlich.php

In reply to iamaclimber:

Thanks. Whats the deal with crossing a bergshrund at the top of an easy gully at this time of year? Is this a bad idea generally? I guess that keeping away from cornices and sunny slopes, there could be some fun winter wandering high in the back of the corries?

In reply to iamaclimber:

its not a bergshrund its a creep line.

In reply to CurlyStevo:

No need for pedantry. We call it a shrund because it looks like one and sounds more fun.

In reply to Milesy:

in terms of safety of the slope underneath them in thaw conditions they are completely different features so let's not!

In reply to CurlyStevo:

Are you sure it's not a randkluft