The Return of Winter to the Summits.
24th February 2025
Winter made return to the higher summits today with some snow showers through the day and a slowly dropping freezing level. The temperature at 1200 metres dropped below freezing at around 2 am last night, and by 2 pm this afternoon it was around -2°C. There were some heavy snow showers coming through, and in the strong South-Westerly winds it felt pretty wild on the tops. However, things still felt quite soft and wet under a thin veneer of ice, and it will take a few days for things to properly freeze up again at higher levels. A few days of colder conditions are expected, and this should improve winter conditions.
Looking up the Goose Gully this morning. At this time there was a dusting of snow above about 1000 metres. During the day the snow level crept down the hill as it gradually got colder and snow showers got blown through.
Up at 1200 metres it definitely felt a lot more wintry. There was plenty of snow blowing around.
The view down Easy Gully. Although looking as it if is holding a lot of fresh snow, in reality it is only a thin layer of fresh snow sitting on the old wet snowpack.
Conditions were pretty bleak up on the Aonach Mor plateau.
The top of right twin was catching the snow, but again it the fresh deposits tended to be shallow.
The top of the twins area from a bit further back. Although snowy at the top, you don’t have to go down slope very far before the snow snow is sitting on wet ground.
Wet snow plastering the windward side of a snow fence on my way down the hill. Wet snow was also sticking to me, and then slowly melting as I descended. Although damp, it was a lot drier than the drenching that I got yesterday.
A couple of picture from the other side. Aonach Beag on the right and Ben Nevis on the left. Taken from Meall Cumhann above Glen Nevis
The South side on Ben Nevis disappearing into the mist. Being the windward side of the mountain, this side is holding much less snow than the other side.
The temperature on the summit of Aonach Mor showing a steady decrease in temperature until early afternoon today. Interesting that it is uniform decrease when it was above freezing, but shows various fluctuations once the temperature dropped below freezing. I am not sure if these fluctuations are due to the shower that were coming through, or something else.
Comments on this post
Got something to say? Leave a comment
