It was another great day of snow and ice in the gullies. I was in the Creag Loigste area on Ben Lawers where there are several excellent wee gullies, all grade 1 or 2. There is extensive water ice above 800m and the gullies are all well filled in with excellent hard snow from about 900m. The big broad gully to the south of the big main crag was looking good and this one usually lasts right through the winter, even with major thaws. I opted for the next one SW of this, great mix of water ice, hard snow and frozen turf. These two gullies are about 30-40 degrees. Tops of the gullies all have some windslab which was still unstable as above 1000m it's still below freezing. There was a nice 30mph Westerly wind on the tops after being sheltered in the gully and visibility was down to a couple of meteres, lots of rime ice on the exposed rocks high up. It was good to get 'proper Scottish winter conditions' after all the 'Alpine' weather we've had since before Christmas. Tomorrow looks a dry day again before a major weather change at the weekend, with gale force SW, but staying cool on the tops which should bring some welcome new snow.
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