Southern Cairngorms Blog & Mountain Info

This snow profile shows clearly the ice layers. Not so obvious in the photo are rapidly developing layers of facets. The shear shown was in a facet layer. The facets grow mainly due to the steep temperature gradient in the snowpack and with low density snow available for vapour transfer. The main concern here is that along with the reported and obvious surface hoar there are some other worrying conditions in the snowpack. Bit of a ticking bomb waiting the right trigger.