Winter is Here!

A climber on the cliffs of Cairn Lochan, Feb 5

The last few days have shown that the idea that this winter will continue mild with little snow or even that it is over already is completely wrong in the Scottish Highlands. There has been fresh snowfall and strong winds, leading to avalanche danger, cornice formation and serious winter conditions. The last weekend saw three rescues, two of them of people avalanched, on Ben Nevis, Braeriach and Mount Keen - mountains far enough apart to show that the winter conditions are widespread.

On the 5th I went up onto the Cairngorm Plateau to see what conditions were like. Climbing up the Fiacaill a'Choire Chais I was soon enveloped in cloud. Snow was falling and the wind was cold and gusty. On reaching the Plateau I needed goggles to protect my eyes and to increase definition in the poor visibility. The wind had scoured the terrain, leaving many rocks and boulders visible with patches of snow and ice between them. If the snow cover had been complete it would have been a white-out. Whenever I crossed large areas of unbroken snow I found slopes and dips hard to see. Areas of old snow were hard and icy, the new snow easily sliding off it, making for slippery ground. This was not easy walking.

It being Sunday there were other people about, including many climbers emerging from the frozen, snow-plastered cliffs of Coire an t-Sneachda and Coire an Lochain. At the top of the Fiacaill I met two parties whose leaders I knew undergoing navigation training. The conditions were ideal for that!

A climber on Cairn Lochan

I wandered over Stob Coire an-t Sneachda and Cairn Lochan, not wanting to venture out onto the featureless Plateau and have a navigation exercise myself, and then down the west shoulder of the latter. Here a touch of blue sky high above suggested the weather might be going to clear, as the forecast had suggested. It didn't. Instead it worsened with the clouds lowering so I had no views as I crossed below the corries and back to the car park.

Cloud over Glenmore

The forecast is for continuing snowfalls and high winds - 94mph has been recorded on Cairn Gorm today. Anyone venturing into the mountains should be prepared for winter conditions and check the Scottish Avalanche Information Service avalanche forecast - looking at the SAIS blogs is a good idea too as there are usually pictures showing the conditions - and the mountain weather forecast - I check both the Met Office Mountain Forecast and the Mountain Weather Information Service.

The Great Outdoors March issue - trekking poles, ice axes, MSR XGK, & FOS down jacket

The March issue of The Great Outdoors is in the shops now. The overall theme is still winter, which is appropriate as it looks like the first snow that might stick for a while is due to start falling this weekend. On the winter theme I review ice axes in a new series called Take Three that will look at three items in different price categories, and also the Freedom of Sleep Hoodie Down Jacket. And in the Classic Gear section I describe the evolution of one of the best stoves for melting snow, the MSR XGK. I also review ten pairs of trekking poles, something I wouldn't be without when there's snow on the hills even for day walks (I often don't bother with poles on summer day trips).

The magazine opens with a couple of mouthwatering wintry photos - the Lairig Ghru from Rothiemurchus by James Roddie and Castell y Gwynt, Glyder Fach by Helen Iles. The latter is a taster for a magnificent photo essay on a winter camp on the summit of Glyder Fach. More great winter photos are found in David Lintern's fine tale about a round of the Glen Etive Munros. The winter theme continues down in the Lake District where Ronald Turnbull describes a day on Striding Edge, Helvellyn and neighbouring summits. Also in the Lake District Stewart Smith climbs a snowy Whiteside in the NW fells and Carey Davies renews acquaintance with the Fairfield Horseshow while down in Snowdonia Dan Aspel climbs a snowy Daear Ddu Ridge on Moel Siabod. Still wintry but far from Britain Alec Connan describes a trip in the wonderful Olympic Mountains in Washington State in the USA, an area I thought was one of the highlights of the Pacific Northwest Trail.

Away from adventures Roger Smith worries about pressures for developments in the countryside and says the need for people to stand up and be counted in the defence of the countryside has never been greater. Roger Smith is also rightly concerned about the future for National Parks in the USA under the Trump administration. Elsewhere he reviews the interesting sounding A Poacher's Pilgrimage by Alastair McIntosh. Also on books Jim Perrin praises Tom Patey's One Man's Mountains, reminding me I must search out my copy - I haven't read it for years.

The Hill Skills section of the magazine is about the Mountain Environment and has interesting stuff on magnetic anomalies (reminding me of when I was caught out on Ben More on Mull, descending the wrong side of the hill), words for hills and mountains, mountain weather, geomorphology and glaciology (a very good piece by Ronald Turnbull), avalanches, and protecting the winter landscape.

A feature in Mountain Rescue magazine

Back in November at the The Great Outdoor Awards I met Judy Whiteside, the author of the TGO Book of the Year, Risking Life and Limb: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation. Judy is also the editor of Mountain Rescue, the membership magazine for mountain and cave rescue in England and Wales.

As befits a good editor Judy took the opportunity to persuade me to write a piece for Mountain Rescue. This has just appeared in Issue 59: Winter 2017 and tells the story of a rescue I was involved in many years ago and the lessons I learned.

A Real Winter's Day on Cairn Gorm

Bynack More

The snow that fell in the middle of the month (see posts for January 13 and 15) didn’t last long even high in the mountains and until a few days ago the weather had been mild. Then the temperature dropped, frost returned to the glens and snow to the tops. Will it last awhile? Maybe!

View down to Glenmore Forest and Loch Morlich

 

Watching the weather forecast closely it looked as though the eastern Cairngorms on the 29^th were going to have the best weather – sunny and cold without really strong winds. Checking the Met Office summit forecasts (a really useful way to pinpoint the most likely tops for good conditions) I saw that Sgor Gaoith above Glen Feshie was predicted to be in cloud all day but that Cairn Gorm would be clear. Thinking about this I realised that I hadn’t been to the easily accessible but little-frequented long north ridge of Cairn Gorm for a while. That would be my destination.

Lochan na Beinne and Meall a'Bhuachaille

 

Climbing up to the ridge past frozen Lochan na Beinne was arduous. The fresh unconsolidated snow smoothed out the terrain, hiding holes and rocks and covering the heather. Wading through this stuff made for slow progress. I didn’t mind. The sky was blue, the snow shining, and there were lovely views over the forest to Glen More, Loch Morlich and Meall a’Bhuachaille. I was warm too as the air was still. It didn’t stay that way. On reaching the ridge I was hit by a bitterly cold wind. Time for more clothing.

View across the Cairngorm Plateau to Ben Macdui and Cairn Toul

 

The walk along the ridge was rather jerky as I went through sometimes knee deep drifts, over hard windblown snow, and across icy rocks. Again the landscape more than compensated for the difficulties. The east side of the ridge falls steeply into Strath Nethy and across this deep valley rose Bynack More, looking very dramatic. From the northern top of Cairn Gorm, Cnap Coire na Spreidhe, more hills came into view, a great sweep from distant Lochnagar round to Cairn Toul. To the west and north the further hills were cloud-covered, even the Monadh Liath just across Strathspey. The Eastern Cairngorms really were the place to be. 

The Cairngorm Weather Station

 

Two people with two dogs passed by descending the ridge. ‘Hard going in the soft snow’, they called out. I saw no-one else until I reached the summit of Cairn Gorm where a party of four arrived from the west. The weather station was iced up but not as snow-covered as it often is at this time of year.

The Moon and Venus

 

The sun set into thick clouds as I descended. A thin crescent moon rose. High above it Venus appeared, shining brightly. Across the pale waters of Loch Morlich and the dark of the forest the orange lights of Aviemore glowed. It has been a grand day.

Loch Morlich and Aviemore

Big Garden Birdwatch

Chaffinches in the rain

The last three months of mostly mild weather has seen a big reduction in the numbers of birds visiting the feeders in the garden so I wasn't surprised when today's count for the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch produced the lowest total we've ever had. Just 16 individual birds and 7 species. Last year we counted 47 birds from 9 species. The two species not seen this year were great spotted woodpecker, though we do see one most days, and greenfinch - we haven't seen any for many weeks.

Rain has been falling all day with very low cloud and no wind. Many of the birds we did see were just sitting in the trees staring into space. More interesting to watch was a red squirrel on a nut feeder and three rabbits browsing on shrubs.

The figures for this year are:

Chaffinch  7
Great tit     2
Coal tit      2
Blue tit      2
Robin        1
Dunnock   1
Blackbird  1

Wild Land Area Descriptions from Scottish Natural Heritage

Suilven in Wild Land Area 32 Inverpolly and Glencanisp. 'An awe-inspiring contrast of isolated steep rocky mountains that tower above open expanses of cnocan, peatland and water bodies, with a strong sense of naturalness.'

Scottish Natural Heritage has just published excellent descriptions of the 42 Wild Land Areas in Scotland. Each detailed description has a map and describes the geographical location and boundaries of the area plus its key attributes and qualities. The landscape, geology, ecology, archaeology and human activity are all included in the descriptions.

As well as a guide to the attractions and nature of the wild land areas, which should be useful to visitors, the descriptions also show why these landscapes should be protected. something that involves both local people and national government. Stuart Brooks, CEO of the John Muir Trust, said 'we believe these in-depth descriptions – which also clarify the distinction between wild land  and other beautiful landscapes where people live and work – can help persuade adjacent local communities of the benefits of protecting and enhancing Wild Land Areas.'
 

Cir Mhor in Wild Land Area 3 North Arran. 'Strong wild land attributes, especially within the remote interior.'

SNH has also published technical guidance for planners and developers, which will be key for conservation of the wild areas. Stuart Brooks said 'A core principle is that any assessment should consider the impact on Wild Land Areas, even if the physical footprint of the development is outside or on the edge of wild land. We are pleased to see that SNH’s guidance attempts to deal with this important issue.'

Coire Ardair in Wild Land Area 19 Braeroy, Glenshirra and Creag Meagaidh. 'A strong sense of naturalness across much of the interior, partly due to the prominence of geological features such as corries and glacier deposition, but also dynamic features such as land slips, deep cut gorges and watercourses'.

To mean anything for the future it is vital that these areas are conserved and that restoration is undertaken for, beautiful and spectacular as they are, many of them contain large areas of degraded and ecologically poor land due to past and current human activities. These descriptions should help with this and are to be welcomed. It's now up to the Scottish Government to take the lead in ensuring that our wonderful wild lands remain so.
 

Not much snow in the Cairngorms. Is this usual?

The Cairngorms, January 17, 2017

There's not much snow in the Cairngorms at present and some people are wondering how unusual this is. I've been asked about it by a few people and have seen comments on social media. Well, the answer is simple. No, it's not unusual. Most winters snow comes and goes. Some years there is unbroken deep cover for several months, some years the snow is mostly thin and patchy.

And sometimes change happens in a few days, as these pictures from this month show.

8th January, little snow

13th January, complete cover down to glen level - enough for me to go snowshoeing from home

16th January, a rapid thaw has stripped away most of the snow

Sometimes the change is from one month to the next. Here are two pictures from 2013.

Little snow on Cairn Gorm, January 11, 2013

The Cairngorm Plateau, February 19, 2013

Is this a low snow winter is another question people are asking?  It's far too early to tell! I'd say we won't know until May. Sometimes the snow comes late, very late. That was the case in 2012. There was some snow high up in January, February and March but it was thin and patchy and not enough for skiing, whether downhill or touring. Heavy snow didn't arrive until April. But it then stayed well into May, causing problems for some TGO Challengers on their way across Scotland. That year I had my best ski tour on May 1 when I skied from Coire Cas car park to Ben Macdui and back on deep snow.

Cairn Gorm, May 1, 2012

Ben Macdui, May 1, 2012

So there's still plenty of time for a good snowy winter!