UKH

A huge amount of snow arrived in the Cairngorms at the start of the week, really filling in the gullies and covering the mixed routes.

I was on Rampant yesterday, good useful snow on ledges, but very hard to find gear, 7 pieces in 70 meters of climbing. Teams were also on red and goat track gullies, fingers and pygmy ridge. Fiacaille couloir was good for the bottom half but then filled with a huge cone of unstable, unclimbable snow! Mess of pottage also had a lot of snow and a soft cornice, routes to the left (opening break etc) looked buried. Dave C was on Afterthought arete which looked good, but no reports from Hell's Lum.

Today at Cha-no we did anvil gully and Jenga buttress in full-on spin drift conditions. The routes on Arch wall area were totally buried with soft cornices across the top of the crag.

Travel is very difficult off the main tracks, post holing all the way, great cover for skiing!

Photos from today here
www.facebook.com/stewartmountainskills

In reply to ian stewart:

How was the walk-in to Cha No? A swim? Took us 2.5 hours to get to the top of Lurchers.

In reply to BnB:

It is hard work everywhere at the moment, the winds haven't had much effect on cover, great news for skiers, bad news for walkers!

In reply to ian stewart:

Photos from today in Coire an t'snechda
https://www.facebook.com/stewartmountainskills/posts/1073499149348528

Fluted buttress direct and goat track gully.

Loads of good firm neve, even some ice in GTG. Fluted buttress difficult to protect in the early easy section, fine higher up.

Big cornice above Jacob's ladder, a lot of snow above Mess of pottage.

Teams on fingers ridge, the seam and a few easy gullies.

Cracking day out!

In reply to ian stewart:

Bit confused with reference to the conditions I was out on Sat and found that there was no consolidated snow, yet people were going into the gullies when the avalanche forecast was considerable, but you don't mention this in your report. People were in Jacobs the Runnel etc.

In reply to stuart58:

apparently not all so:
http://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/t.php?t=632641&v=1#x8215425

In reply to stuart58:

I was also there on Saturday and it was postholing on the corrie floor but firming up nicely on the fluted buttress routes once you got onto the steeper bits. We were first in a cast of thousands up FBD.

Not surprised that things have improved some more given another couple of days (Ian's report is from Monday).

Agreed, it has still been hard work moving around the mountain, and care needed on approaches as mentioned in the avalanche forecast, but steeper ground, over 50 degrees had shed the softer snow and firmed up well. An improving picture all the time with no new snow arriving.

We were in Lochain yesterday, Savage slit and fallout corner are both well cleared, hoarmaster looked fairly black too (not sure if it has been climbed or just sheltered) Everything else is well plastered in a thick layer of rime.

Jon Sanders climbed the message, unhelpful snow on the lower pitch, but well cleared higher up.

Warming up on friday, melt-freeze might help, melt-melt less so.... fingers crossed

In reply to ian stewart:
forecast is melt melt melt melt melt