Took a wander up the Cairngorms yesterday.
Weather was not good – low cloud all day and drizzle. This was not a good day for taking pics, however, something is always better than nothing.

Ciste Mherraid

Wasn’t sure if there was going to be any snow here, but to my surprise a reasonable patch was discovered.
Possibly 30/40ft long 15ft wide. Perhaps 3 ft deep in the deepest place. There was a bit of a stream coming from it.
This patch is 50/50 for lasting all year.

Garbh Uisage Mhor/ East face of Macdui

Wondered around for a while in thick mist and came upon only 2 small patches.
These were smaller than Ciste Mherraid and were definitely in a dying phase. The black object in the middle of the patch (gmor.patch1) is my glove - so that gives you an idea of size.

There may have been another patch but I couldn’t see it and by that time I had had enough and headed down the hill.

One thing I had noticed was that the snow was hard as a brick and icy in places, despite the mild day – so clearly there must have been some sub zero nights already.

Special thanks to my GPS which made navigating easier




Edited 1 times. Last edit at 14.07hrs Mon 8 Sep 08 by snowpatch95.

Attachments: c.mrd1.jpg (411kB)  

more pics here

Attachments: cmrd2.jpg (384kB)   gmor.patch1.jpg (367kB)   gmor.patch2.jpg (443kB)  

Good stuff snowpatch 95 it's a pity about the weather.

I was up Aonach Beag today in fair conditions,it was sunny to start with but the cloud predictably rolled in by mid-morning.

There was 5 patches in total-the main patch was around 50mtrs in length and 5-6 ft deep at the edge though no doubt deeper towards the centre. 2 others looked to be 2mtrs or so wide from a distance and the final 2 were miniscule.

The 3 pics below show the 1st small patch to the East of the main patch,the other 3 which are a fair bit higher up than the main patch though you have to look very carefully to see 2 of them ,they are to the lower left end lower right of the rounded higher patch and i've a pic of the main patch

Was up the ben yesterday, pictures to follow (pressed the wrong button doh!)

Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 17.51hrs Mon 8 Sep 08 by Mike_w.

North face pics.



Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com



Edited 3 times. Last edit at 17.53hrs Mon 8 Sep 08 by Mike_w.

Attachments: IMG_3985.JPG (73kB)   IMG_3980.JPG (134kB)  

Crikey we've all been out and about!

I was up Aonach Beag this morning in fair weather and observed a total of 5 patches. There is the main patch which was around 50 metres long and only 5-6ft deep at the top edge though doubtless it will exceed this in the centre.

Another v small patch lies quite close by to the East and is higher up,it clearly won't be around for long,possibly 2-3 mtres wide tops.

3 others lurk to the S.W. of the main patch and are much higher up. 1 of these final 3 looks to be of a similar size to the one described above but the other 2 are just days from disappearance.They are hard to spot in the pic but they are both below left and below right of the centre patch in the pic.






Attachments: CIMG1198.JPG (656kB)   CIMG1207.JPG (634kB)   CIMG1195.JPG (615kB)  

2 more of A Beag and one of A Mor not closely observed.

Attachments: CIMG1192.JPG (625kB)   CIMG1193.JPG (618kB)   CIMG1189.JPG (597kB)  

Coaster, these looked pretty big from the road assuming I was looking at the same ones?

Mike in Edinburgh
Assorted scottish pics - www.prog99.com

Hi Mike.

The pics from the road are Aonach Mors patches on photo cimg1189.

Great pics, everyone, well done. What's the likelihood of these surviving through to winter? I presume we can still get some hairdryer like SW in September to help the melting.

Dear all,

Fantastic work! Some decent pictures.

Snowpatch, well done in those difficult conditions. It's difficult terrain when visibility is so poor, and I suppose it's easy to miss some things. I believe there's a couple that you didn't see (the biggest one!) judging from the report that Da Kishman posted. Good to see that Ciste Mhearad is still a decent size, as it had all but melted this time last year. Probably a good 2-3 weeks left in that one, and if it makes October then it will have done well.

Mike, great pictures of the north face. I've attached a couple taken on the 5th from Tower Ridge (thanks to Blair Fyffe) showing Point 5 Gully in better nick than last year, and Observatory Gully looking to have slowed down its rate of melt from when we visited it in August. Blair reported much cooler conditions of late, and although it's smaller than this time last year, it's not melted as much as I feared, with the difference with this time last year not as marked as it was.

coaster, well done on getting down to Aonach Beag. That 600-ft drop from the goat track at the top is tricky in wet conditions, and I'm pleased to see the patch is still in good nick. I reckon (from the photograph) it's around 60-odd metres long. The resilience of this patch never ceases to surprise me. It's only lost a little since I photographed it in August, with the cooler conditions helping the process. However, Aonach Mor still looking like a lost cause.

Well done to all! It really is great stuff.

Attachments: Point 5 Gully - 5.9.08.JPG (899kB)  

Observatory Gully

Attachments: Observatory Gully - 5.9.08.JPG (697kB)  

Great pictures, has anyone got any recent pictures or info on An Garbh Choire?
Being the largest patch and longest lasting it should give us a decent idea on how things are surviving by comparing with previous years?
Anyone seen it recently?

Herewith photos from 31/08/08:

Attachments: coirebhrochain310808.jpg (173kB)   garbhcoiremor310808.jpg (153kB)   Macdui310808.jpg (266kB)  

And some more - in the photo looking to Ben Macdui(in the above post!),one of 2 snowy coire patches is visible high up in the shot, just below the cloud; the second one is just to the right of this - also there was a third patch to the right of the 2 on the N.top's east flank!



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 13.08hrs Wed 10 Sep 08 by Da kishman.

Attachments: coireanlochain310808.jpg (179kB)   garbhuisge310808.jpg (259kB)   feithbuidhe310808.jpg (329kB)