Black and White.
15th February 2025
There was a dusting of snow at all levels this morning. This combined with a a thick layer of cloud this morning had the effect of bleaching all the colour out of the landscape. It felt like I was operating in a world of black and white. However, this sounds better than a number of the forecasters in other areas who were operating in a world of just white.
Although this snow had an affect on the appearance of the landscape at lower levels, it did not significantly change the situation at higher levels. Although the fresh snow shows poor stability where it has drifted, the deposits are so shallow and isolated that the overall hazard remains low.
In general snow cover is still thin, and there is still plenty of water-ice on hillside and water courses although now hidden under a thin layer of fresh snow. From the footsteps in the snow it looked like a few had come to grief on the ice on the path up to the hut. If so then they wouldn’t be the first, and are unlikely to be the last.
The road to the North Face carpark. There was a dusting of snow down to sea level this morning.
The so called seven minute tree as apparently it takes seven minutes to walk from there to the dam carpark. I have also heard it called the eight minute tree, but have never actually timed it to see which (if either) is more accurate.
Carn Dearg Buttress. There is some ice forming on the likes of the CIC hut cascade and the base of Waterfall Gully. However, in general the mountain feels quite dry, it has been cold and dry since about the 5th, and other than in the main watercourses there is not a great deal of water about to turn into ice.
Looking up onto the main faces of Ben Nevis. Although white, not much snow or ice for the time of year.
The view from the CIC hut into the back of Coire na Ciste.
Looking up Observatory Gully. Although there is a superficial dusting of snow about which makes it looks white there is really very little snow for the time of year. A day of thaw (expected next week) and the mountains would be back to almost entirely black.
Looking back at the Douglas boulder and Carn Dearg Buttress.
Cracking in the fresh snow. Fresh deposits are unstable shown by their propensity to crack beneath my feet on a relatively easy angled slope. However, these deposits tend to be isolated and avoidable (I did have to hunt around for this drift).
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