Southern Cairngorms Blog & Mountain Info

Lochnagar

16th March 2024

One look at the weather forecast made me decide not to hang around this morning and get out on the hills as early as possible as the best of the weather was definitely going to be first thing. And conditions didn’t disappoint – Blue sky, sunshine and very light winds initially – felt like pay back for all the foggy days that I’d had recently. Towards late morning cloud started to build and the wind picked up, making it feel quite chilly on exposed skin. By early afternoon Lochnagar had a summit cloud.

Lots of walkers had obviously made the same decision as me and there was a steady flow of people already making the summit before midday.

Climbers were heading into the corrie and I met a very keen local at the top of Black Spout who had seen three parties heading for Raeburn’s alone. He had enjoyed good conditions with his solitary speed climb up the Black Spout, making fresh tracks all the way.

There was a thin uniform layer of fresh snow above 800 metres and by midday this was starting to drift at summit level, snaking its way into the tops of the gullies.

There’s some more snow forecast for this evening before a rising freezing level spoils things, turning the snow to rain at all levels. The freezing level is due to remain above the summits all day on Sunday.

There will be a localised windslab issue overnight, but during the day, consolidation will have taken place and the majority of snow will be soft but generally stable.