Facet development?
11th January 2014
I was at Lochnagar today and headed up the West Ridge. Very cold and very windy! Unfortunately I can’t put the pics online just now, I will once I get a cable!
A point to make. Under the hard icy crust it has become a lot softer with facets developing here. This will affect the crust stability eventually. Facets seemed to be more developed in shallower areas of the snow although today wasn’t a great day for crystal observation.
Probably more of an issue now for climbers, whack through the crust and it’s ‘cruddy’. The corrie was fairly busy today with a couple of teams backing off routes, not sure if the strong winds or quality of neve in some locations was the main factor.
Pics later.
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