High Altitude Tree
25th March 2025
There were some lovely warm sunny spells in the glens today. However, the summit remained in the cloud most of the time. The freezing level was above the tops and the patchy spring snowpack continues to slowly thaw.
Wandering up the hill, in an area that I have probably walked up at least a hundred times, I stumbled across a small tree nestled in the boulders that I had not spotted before. I took a photo and wandered on, and only later estimated the altitude from the map. It was about 1050 metres. There is an article about high altitude trees here. Based on this article, although there are some higher trees elsewhere in Scotland, this might be the highest in Lochaber. The tricky bit might be finding it again to get a more accurate altitude.
Looking over to the Goose Ski run. This is the area on the front of the hill that holds the snow the longest.
The Highest tree in Lochaber? I stumbled across this wee tree at an altitude of about 1050m. A quick search online mentions a birch found at 1026m on Ben Nevis, but nothing higher than this is mention in Lochaber.
Near the top of the summit run the skies briefly cleared.
The blue sky in the previous picture did not last long, and conditions quickly returned to gray and cloudy. The top of Easy Gully in the cloud.
Looking North along the top of the crags.
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Archaeocol
25th March 2025 7:57 pm
Re: The Tree.
Nowhere near the Lochaber Altitude Champ I’m afraid. Birch (Betula pubescens) was found on the Ben at 1205 m in 2023.
The one you saw is one of several invasive self-seeded non-native Sitka spruce from commercial blanket afforestation that are scattered around in small patches of block scree on that part of Aonach Mor.
Probably not doing too much damage where it is but generally the self-seeded high-altitude ‘escapes’ are potentially a serious menace on some Lochaber cliffs (and elsewhere in UK as well) that harbour fragile native and scarce plant communities. The Sitka shades them out – or often rips the soil/moss layer from cliffs when they grow too big and collapse under their weight taking the substrate – and any other unfortunate species growing on it – with them.
Cheers,
Col
lochaberadmin
26th March 2025 1:21 pm
Many thanks for your great comment.
Eòin McIntyre
26th March 2025 11:10 am
Is that dwarf tree a juniper?
lochaberadmin
26th March 2025 1:20 pm
Sadly no, it’s Sitka Spruce. Please see comment below.