UKC

Hi,

anyone know what the cornices are like at the moment of the east face of Aonach Mor? Had a look for current info but been unable to find anything directly related. Heading up at weekend. I know conditions are 'interesting' to say the least, but you gotta take what you can get.

Cheers

Ryan

In reply to ryan_d:

I can't imagine there will be much in the way of cornices left after the thaws of the past few days. It will take a few cold days to refreeze the turf, and looks like any snow up there won't have consolidated by the weekend. Still, could be worth a look on Sunday. I doubt that the gondola will be running on Saturday.

I was on the West Face of Aonach Mor today, and the snow was quite superficial.

http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/news/winter-returns-to-the-highla...

In reply to KA:

Thanks Ken. Was thinking similar, but never climbed on Aonach Mor before and was warned about the cornices so just thought I would ask. Also expecting the lifts not to be running. Was originally thinking west face but as winds are expected to be from the W or NW, I was thinking east face as it is more sheltered. Then again, the storm force winds didn't materialise today so here's hoping.

Ryan

In reply to ryan_d:

No problem. The West Face might well be ideal on Sunday if the forecast remains as is and the gondola opens. The routes on the West Face are long, and if the cloud is down, finding the starts of the routes can be tricky, so catch the climber's gondola at 8am to give yourself the best chance.

In reply to KA:

Hi Ken,

I can't see any details of the 8am gondola on the Nevis Range website (http://www.nevisrange.co.uk/gondola_times_and_prices.asp). Do you have any more details? Is it daily, weekends only, presumably it only takes you to 650m?

Cheers

In reply to thedatastream:
The 8am gondola runs everyday when the weather permits. Be there sharp as you'll need to buy a ticket. Note that if you're going to the east face, you can pay a little extra to use the quad chair after the gondola, gets you to around 900m. But this combination isn't always available. Particularly with the present wind pattern they may have to do some remedial work before the quad opens. It was getting wild in the car park at 8 this morning!

In reply to ryan_d:
Yesterday I agree with the others that there wouldn't have been many cornices left.

However today cornices will be forming fast on E / NE / N aspect on the strong SW winds and heavy snow today. They will also be very unstable, being fresh sitting on an icy base.

Aonach Mor East Face is not a place I'd want to be for a good while after the forecast for the next few days, the majority of the routes can suffer cornice problems and the crag aprons are notorious avalanche hot spots. You'll really want another thaw or a good while for things to settle down before visiting there IMO, however there are some routes you can ab down and normally climb without cornice issues and lowering your avalanche risk, one of them is Morwind.

http://www.mwis.org.uk/pdf/weather-forecasts/WH-MWI-WM10721_2016-01-27_1255...
http://www.sais.gov.uk/lochaber/

As another poster suggested the west face routes are a better bet when snow has been falling or has been redistributed on strong westerly winds, as the routes will be scoured out rather then piled up with wind slab and the avalanche / cornice risk is likely to be much lower.

In reply to Moonstone Hippy:

Nice one, thanks