Report 1, 7/12/2011
A Violent Change
Welcome back to another season of condition reports from Mountain Innovations.
The story so far: The first bout of wintry weather arrived in mid October on the hills. It resulted in some waste and knee deep drifts high up but it was then followed by an especially mild period which stripped things completely.
As we moved to a new month there was a significant weather change and since that point the conditions have been on the whole consistently cold with snow down to low levels. Ridges have been blown clear with deep accumulations forming in sheltered lees etc. The direction has been generally between south and NW with the majority in the West which would be good build up in N & East facing gulleys. This has meant the Cairngorms have received relatively little snow as we’ve been in the precipitation shadow of W and NW Highlands. That having been said, the huge snow catchment area that is the Cairngorm Plateau combined with the strong winds does mean the snow generally gets concentrated in the right areas.
Today: Presently we have approx 5 cm of wet thawing snow here in Boat of Garten (230m). The temperature has risen this morning to near 2 deg C in Boat of Garten and is still at -6 on the summit of Cairngorm so unless there’s a sudden increase in temp it looks unlikely that predicted rise in freezing level to 1100m has actually happened: somewhere between the Met office & MWIS forecasts. Again it has been windy today with + 70 mph. Fridays forecast is for a sharp drop in temperature (-9 deg C @ 900m) accompanied by hurricane winds from the NW as a deep intense low crosses the Highlands. As its centre passes into the N sea you would start to expect heavier snowfall in the E highlands as the Cairngorms are the first really high ground the weather meets on landfall whether the wind is coming from the N, E or SE. This is what’s predicted for Fri & Sat.
Certain areas are getting filled in with it being evident from a considerable distance away. Lower down Corrie Gorm on the Sron na Lairige looked ski-able from the A9. Of course there has already been action on some of the winter climbs especially the mixed routes with the turf being well frozen. There isn’t enough snow for downhill skiing quite yet but it wont be long by the sounds of it.
It’s all looking good.
Enjoy the winter hills.
Andy
Mountain Innovations
01479 831 331
