A Brief Comparison to Winter’s Past
29th March 2026
A stormy day in Lochaber today. The walk up the Allt a’ Mhuilin this morning was pretty grey with rain, low cloud and, when approaching the hut, some slush and wet snow on the ground. It was also very windy. I did not have much hope of being able to see very far. However, the around mid-morning things did clear up a bit. Some fresh avalanche debris could be seen at the base of Observatory Gully and Number 5 Gully. There also a crown wall and debris from an avalanche yesterday visible in the back of Coire an Ciste. Unfortunately, these don’t really show up in the photos below.
I have heard a fair few comments this year about having a “proper” winter at last. Although every winter does has it’s moments, this season does feel like a big improvement on the past few winters. However, how does it compare to the winters of say ten or fifteen years ago? At some point I would like to do analysis of each winter based on weather data to try and give each winter a score, that requires a bit more thought. However, given that it cleared up today, and I managed to get some decent photos, I thought it would be interesting to compare photos from today, to photos from the same locations in previous years to show how this year’s snow amount compares. Further down in the post are three views, two of which are on Ben Nevis, and one on Aonach Mor. For each view there are three photos, the first being from today or last Friday, and the other two being from March last year (a low snow yea) or from March 2014 or 2015 (two big snow years). The photos show how much more snow there was than last year, but how much less than at this time of year in 2014 and 2015. Looking back over the past 20 years or so, I would say this winter is a lot better than the past few, but pretty average compared to those of about fifteen years ago.
Windy and wet in the morning. I was not hopeful of much in the way of views on the walk in.
Looking up towards the Orion face, still a fair bit of ice about.
Looking up Observatory Gully today, a reasonable amount of snow but nothing extraordinary.
Looking up Observatory Gully late March 2025, all a bit grim in terms of winter that year.
Looking up Observatory Gully in March 2014. This winter along with the following season were two of the snowiest winters in the Lochaber hills of recent times.
Looking into Coire na Ciste today.
A similar view this time last year, I have seen more snow in the Coire in August!.
A slightly wider view of the Ciste in March 2014
Coire an Lochan on Aonach Mor last Friday. There is probably a wee bit more snow in there now, but overall I suspect it would look similar to this.
Coire an Lochan this time last year. Terrible scenes if you like winter!
A similar view during March 2015. They were good times if you like winter!
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Mark Figiel
29th March 2026 6:49 pm
Thanks for the pictures above , I remember the winters of 2014, and 2015.The snow in Coire an Lochan was amazing in those years. The depth was phenomenal.
Do you think we will have snow patch survival ( Aonach Beag ) , Ben Nevis or even Coire an Lochan. I think given a normal not to wet spring and summer we will.
lochaberadmin
29th March 2026 7:08 pm
Yeah a lot of snow those winters. Good question about the snow patches. I think it could go either way. At the moment I would say there is a reasonable chance for a Ben Nevis and Aonach Beag, but I think Aonach Mor is unlikely.