Lochnagar 1st March
1st March 2009
Lochnagar – 1st March
So the snow pretty much ran out before it reached us last night! There was only a trace of overnight snow above 950 metres. The old snow does have refrozen surface layers now. The first light snow shower arrived around 10.30 with more frequent but still light showers falling this afternoon. There was a strong wind blowing over the summits but despite this it was a good hill day. There were a few climbers in the corrie, with one party at least heading up to Parallel A Gully. As you can see the buttresses are stripped right back and even the medium grade gullies now look a bit thin. The easier gullies are still intact. Remember you can click on the pictures to make them larger. I met three keen runners heading up to the top – they didn’t have much body fat on them and lycra on their lower halves – hmm I don’t think they will have stopped for long once they got in the wind that was blowing on the top! Lots of walkers were taking advantage of the good conditions today as well. The access is clear at the moment so walk-in times are good.
Winds are due to increase tomorrow to around 60 mph with some snow forecast for around the middle part of the day. The freezing level is supposed to rise to 1200 metres so the snow is going to turn to sleet on all but the highest summits. New accumulations will form in those strong winds but depth will be dependant on the intensity of the snowfall. We are expecting light amounts of new snow. If you come across deeper new accumulations that overlie a firm base on angled terrain, bonding will be poor.
Sam
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