Friday 23 December 2011

AFTER THE MONSOON........THE RETURN OF WINTER......FOR A DAY

Comb Buttress & No.3 Gully
Avalanche debris from No.3 Gully
North Gully & No.4 Gully avalanche debris
Still plenty of snow even at lower levels
A welcome relief  today with much cooler temperatures after a couple of days of monsoon weather on the west coast. I headed up onto the North Face of Ben Nevis to see how much damage the warm and wet weather had done to the snow. Pleased to see there is still vast amounts and depths of snow in the Ciste Corrie and even ice hanging on above 800m. It was a very quiet Ben today but I did bump into Al Halewood and Lucy who were heading over to have a look at Raeburns' Easy Route. I headed up to have a wee look at No.4 Gully. All the major gullies have avalanche debris strewn out of them, including No2, No.3, North Gully, No.4 Gully and No.5 Gully. The avalanche debris from No.3 is huge and finishes down at the lochan area. Having got to the foot of No.4 I decided not to go up, thinking only one day of cooler temperatures hasn't consolidated the snow enough, especially as the cornices are probably quite big and fragile at the moment. There were constant snow showers above 500m today and a brisk NW wind. Unfortunately it looks like the monsoons will be back for the next couple of days. 

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