Windslab and scouring
13th March 2026
It was a cold day with strong South-Westerly winds. There were snow showers and some poor visibility in the morning with brighter conditions later in the day.
There has been a lot of precipitation over the last 48 hours. Much of it on Thursday fell as wet snow, except on the higher summits but what fell last night was dry and has formed fairly extensive areas of poorly bonded windslab mainly on North to East aspects. This fresh snow gave great skiing (on slopes that weren’t steep enough to avalanche).
Plateau areas and slopes exposed to the strong winds were scoured and icy.
Photos and video below from Aonach Mor.
Great skiing conditions. Only the gondola running so skinning (or walking) up required.
Looking down the Goose.
Sgurr Finnisg-aig catching the sun.
Very windy at 1200 metres with windslab and scoured icy areas (above).
Fragile mini cornices even below 700 metres (above).
Thanks to an off duty froecaster an off duty forecaster who was on Ben Nevis for the pictures below showing the wintery conditions.
Approaching the CIC hut.
A slush flow below the CIC hut.
The top of the Douglas Boulder.
Looking up towards the Orion Face area.
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