Winter Strikes Back
25th March 2026
After some mild spring-like conditions over the weekend winter was very definitely back today. The past 36 hours have been very wet here in Lochaber, with all the rain at lower level falling as snow on the hills. I did look at the SEPA rain gauge in Glen Nevis to see how much precipitation had fallen. However, this seems to have had a fault as it had recorded no precipitation yesterday afternoon, while observations (both the met office rainfall radar, and looking out the window) showed that it had rained through most of the day. There was plenty of further showers overnight and this morning.
No surprise then that there was loads of fresh snow on the hill. I went on skis today, and even then trail breaking felt quite hard at times. I suspect that on foot it would have been much worse. The summit wind speed was between about 15mph and 30mph which in the cold snowy conditions I find to be the most efficient windspeed for building cornices. This is strong enough to transport the snow, but not strong enough for large amounts of turbulence or for much of the snow to be lost back into the atmosphere or blown off the hill altogether as happens in much higher winds. Visibility was too poor to see what was happening with the cornices today, but I am sure there are some pretty large and fragile ones lurking above the gullies. Hopefully a bit more visibility tomorrow.
The view from the gondola window at al altitude of about 200 metres this morning. Heavy showers were falling as snow down to low levels.
Leaving the top station felt very wintery with poor visibility and lots of snow falling.
The view near the top of the summit run at an altitude of about 1180 metres. As expected poor visibility and lots of snow blowing around here as well.
An image from the Nevis Range webcam at the race hut looking up the Goose around quarter past four this afternoon. There was no snow in the foreground of this image 36 hours ago, now a uniform covering of, at a guess, 25cm of fresh snow. Not a great deal of drifting at this altitude, there was more drifting on the summits.
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Ross
25th March 2026 8:21 pm
Noticed on 19 March in Gardyloo Gully that a cornice earlier in the season must have collapsed in behind the chockstone, near the top of gully. A few ominous deep voids and cavities could be seen at the edges of a relatively horizontal rumpled mass of snow atop this section. The current cornice was fairly big with a ‘ledge’ below about one metre in depth running the width of the cornice and a couple of drooping blocky edges looked decidedly suspect. Similar cornice features also observed at the Point 5 area.
lochaberadmin
26th March 2026 1:30 pm
Thanks for the observation. You often get various cracks and other features forming in and around cornices during mild spells. Best to be treated with some caution.