New Year, New Weather.
1st January 2026
New Year, and a change in the weather. It felt pretty wintry today with showers which fell as snow right down to sea level. From a distance there does not look like much fresh snow, not much more than a dusting. However, there is significantly more fresh snow at 1200 metres altitude than there is at say at 700 metres altitude. On the higher tops this fresh snow is not well bonded, particularly where it is building up on top of the old hard icy snowpack, and it is building up at the top of slopes and gullies. With temperatures staying low, and more snow forecast for the next few days, little change is expected.
The view at 600 metres, only a dusting to fresh snow, and does not feel enough to produce an avalanche hazard. However, conditions at 1200 metres were very different, with much more fresh snow.
The view over to Carn Mor Dearg in a gap between the showers.
About 60cm of fresh snow behind a snow fence at 1200 metres. There was lots of fresh snow blowing into the top of the gullies in Coire an Lochan, and I imagine similar on Ben Nevis.
Icy rime on a pole at 1200 metres. This was created yesterday in the periods of freezing rain. On the ground many of the rocks had icy rime on them. Although it was hard to tell due to the lack of visibility today, I suspect many of the crags would also be quite verglassed/iced up.
The North face of Ben Nevis during a brief clearing. Again a generally shallow layer of snow, but the top of the major gullies will be catching plenty of fresh stuff.
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