SAIS Southern Cairngorms Blog

Lochnagar 25/03/08
There have been some fairly decent drifts across the Lochnagar track and it is still quite deep in a couple of places. It is starting to get a bit of traffic now and is improving but the path from where it leaves the track is not really that well broken and could with a few more sets of boots over it!
Obviously there is fresh snow in the corrie but you can also see that the wind has been blowing through it as well, so there is a real mixture of conditions to be encountered. It was very cold overnight and the snow remains unconsolidated and weakly bonded. The windchill today through the col was fairly significant and you didn’t really want to expose any skin for too long.
Tomorrow’s wind will be much lighter and from the SE for a change (15 mph forecast). The forecast is for dry weather, with a 600 metre freezing level and minus 3 degrees centigrade at 1000 metres. So not a bad day really. The recent windslab needs time to consolidate so continue to avoid steeper sheltered locations where deep soft deposits exist. Cornices are still unstable – now is not the time for any tunneling adventures!