UKC

Hello all.

I'm thinking of taking the very late season opportunity of the prospect of good weather forecast for later next week, coupled with what I gather is still considerable snow cover over Ben Nevis and the Aonachs.
I had it in mind to do the Lochaber Traverse (Nen Nevis - CMD Arete, over CMD - Aonach Mor - Aonach Beag - Grey Corries and out to Roybridge with a half way camp.

Can anyone either confirm or temper my imaginings of alpine-like snow conditions over the length of this route? I've not kept up with conditions reports this year so am unsure whether the general picture for current snow cover is that it's really confined to Ben Nevis/Aonach Mor with none of The Grey Corries or that it's just a light dusting over dry rock, or whether there's been enormous dumps and that currently it's a death trap. So I'm after a general picture of current conditions for walking, so that I can see how things progress over the next couple of days as I'm not really bothered about driving up for the route if it's in dry, summer conditions.

Can anyone help at all?

Cheers,
Tom

In reply to Tom Last:

There wil certainly be some old 'alpine' snow to be found on most of the mountains in the route, but i dobt its a continuous snow ridge. The ben summit is very snowy, The CMD arete is mostly bare rock but you could probably stick to old snow for most of its length if you dropped just below the crest, the aonachs are probably still linked by snow, after that it is only guess work on my part but i still expect substancial snow buildups in places along the length of the grey corries but also expect allot of bare rock.

there may also still be fresh dustings of snow over the summits and it is still staying failry cold up high.

In reply to Webster:

Great info, thanks Webster.

Tom

In reply to Tom Last:

Grey Corries last Monday had very little - what was there was easy to do without any axe or crampons - there will be less now as it was very warm & sunny from Tuesday onwards. Ben & Aonachs still have a lot but diminished every day we were there