UKC

Is winter coming back?

What views on how conditions will be affected?

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

A fair amount of snow has hit the central highlands; 20cm reported at road level in Glencoe, with Cairngorm having snow down to Loch Morlich. Unfortunately it's due to be wet and mild over the weekend, before getting colder again next week. Some consolidation is no bad thing, but only if this new snow survives - there's basically no base and the ground is wet and warm.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

Not looking great for this weekend but the following one might just be better. Maybe.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

Day off tomorrow, so hoping to get something done in Coire an Lochain, Cairngorms before Saturdays thaw.

In terms of into next week, as others say it depends on what of the new snow survives the weekend before it gets colder again.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

I was thinking about heading back up to Scotland for another 5-7 days this weekend into next week. However my latest thinking is that conditions in 2nd week of March high on the Ben could actually turn out to be fairly decent and might be the better option.

More snow forecast for Ben Nevis over the next 5 days followed by some freeze thaw could hopefully result in some decent late season ice on Smith's and Indicator Wall etc..

Equally, that might just be wishful thinking...

In reply to gavmac:
Thanks for replies all.

You're confirming my thoughts. I'm in Glasgow now and plenty of snow on the hills around. But query how long it'll stay..

In reply to gavmac:

Take a lot of care with approaches in the Northern Corries tomorrow. We went up to #4 in Lochain and the approach was only just ok, with big pockets of poorly bonded windslab about, and it kept snowing after we got up so it may have got worse. A few teams triggered avalanches today. Much more snow than was forecast.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

Unfortunately Saturday's warm and wet weather will wipe out anything that has developed the past few days. temps +4 at 900 plus rain and storm force Sou'westers don't generally help build conditions...

In reply to Andy Moles:

I heard it was a similar story in Sneachda, So plans have changed for tomorrow. Working instead and saving a day off for another time. Thanks for the update.

In reply to gavmac:

Yep, tomorrow not a good day to be climbing, sadly. We did P1 of The Lamp today and forgot to turn right so ended up doing the rest of Original Route (apologies again, Eddie and Matt!) Lots and lots of fresh powder. One of the other guys out found himself in a mini slide just below the route/the start of Original Route, which fortunately came to a quick stop. Our decision in light of the powder dump to ab all the way down Alladin's Couloir in descent paid off when we triggered a substantial release.

Depending on timing, Saturday's brief period of wet thaw could turn out OK, with quick freeze thereafter. Or not...! We need a base!

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

Arran looked stunning this morning, viewed from the mainland, all white and wintery.
There was definately a cold night last night, heavy frost on the mainland and would imagine on Arran as well.
The window is a short one though with heavy rain forecast this evening and tomorrow.
Shame I'm working today.

In reply to Tricadam:

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to do this rather than walk off? I wasn't there so I'm not being critical but at first glance it sounds a bit complicated, time consuming and not necessarily safer.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

I was trying to climb yesterday in Glen Shiel but nothing was frozen even at 1000m altitude.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

South of the border, down Beddgelert way...( Llyn y Gadair)

https://www.facebook.com/BeddWood/videos/1399964230044992/?pnref=story

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

A little-known climbing site may have some useful advice courtesy of the folks at Glenmore Lodge. https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/70958/news_-_weekend_winter_conditions...

In reply to DaveHK:

Fair question! Bags in the boulder field, for starters, with no other safe way to get back to them. And in any event, walking off would have involved ascending the equally sketchy top bit of Alladin's Couloir.

(We also considered abbing the route, but foresaw potential complications with stuck ropes, given the easy angle and proliferation of boulders, cracks etc.)

In reply to Tricadam:

I think it's good to discuss these things. The reason I asked is that there's almost always a safe route back to the bottom of the corrie either by windy col (or further north) or skirting the west side of the Fiacaill ridge and dropping in from there (down the boulder field, not the open slope). Maybe they weren't options yesterday though and if the clag was in you wouldn't be able to check visually if they were loaded and it would take a bit of nav to find them. Maybe a case of better the devil you know! Also, the slide at the start of the day and the one in the gully showed that aspect was avalanche prone so I'm not sure I'd choose to spend more time on it than necessary, even abseiling. Plus, once you've finished abbing, you'd still have the avalanche prone lower slopes to negotiate. I'll just re-emphasise, I'm not being critical just wondering why you chose what looks to me like an unusual option.

Edit: Looking again at your last post I imagine the snow at the top of Alladin's was probably reason enough!

In reply to DaveHK:

Yes, I agree it's good to be able to discuss these things and get others' perspectives and tips, both online and on the hill.

My heart was in my mouth today when, from 1141, I observed a couple of people climbing up Alladin's Couloir. I hope they made it...

Worth mentioning that a 60m ab from near the bottom of said route gets you on to shallow slopes without a sketchy run out.

A useful thing I've got recently is a clinometer app for my phone. Of course having it is no guarantee of making the effort to use it when it's dark, you're knackered and you'd just like to believe that the slope you're on is fine. My partner and I got away with it coming back down into Sneachda from the col to the north of Mess of Pottage a week or two back, but it was a bad decision, stemming from bad planning in not thinking sufficiently before the climb about descents - not just the approach! If we had, we'd have climbed with bags that day.

In reply to Tricadam:

In terms of further detail on how we made that error in descent from MoP, our original thought had been to climb with bags and walk off. But then, as we approached, that west-facing slope back down to the corrie from the col north of MoP looked less steep than I remembered, i.e. under 25 degrees. We knew it would have some windslab on it due to direction of recent winds, but at that angle it wouldn't matter. What we should have done was get the map out and calculate the slope angle (which turns out to be 32-odd degrees, i.e. prime windslab avalanche terrain...) but, with other teams about - it was a Sunday - we wanted to bash on and get on the route. As it was, we had to queue behind one team. The prospect of climbing bag free, avoiding what would be an extremely windy descent that day from 1141, and not needing to hold everything up by faffing with the map and the inverse tan function on the phone calculator(!) was very attractive, so we let ourselves be lazy and optimistic. Salutary. We were lucky to get away with it.

In reply to fairweatherclimber:

Tried to get to the Stuic Saturday 25th - river in spate and uncrossable to a degree I have not seen in some time.