FULL WINTER EXPERIENCE ON FIACAILL RIDGE

Fiacaill Butress

Iced ridge

Water ice, frozen turf. all good!

Fiacaill Ridge in profile

Windy up here

Late afternoon on Meall a' Bhuachaille

The ptarmigan are almost white

Hard going lower down in the drifts

Fiacaill Ridge and Cairngorm plateau

More ice

Interesting to see more snowcover on Meall a' Bhuachaille than the plateau!

Coire an t-sneachda

Cold temperatures and some more snowfall overnight to low levels. Today was dry in The Cairngorms. A cold 40mph wind on the tops. It took me double the time I would normally take to get to the foot of the Fiacaill Ridge. The drifts were knee deep in places. That's fine by me, I enjoy a good work out early in the season to get winter fit :)  The ridges and plateau are quite bare of snow with the high winds and cold temperatures. I went on the eastern side of the Fiacaill where the ground was well frozen and lots of wonderful ice. A great mix of rime, water ice, frozen turf and some frozen snow. Pretty cold and windy on the plateau. Coire an t-sneacha was looking bare with the snow blown off, Coire an Lochain looked much snowier. All this will change rapidly again over the next 24 hours with more snowfall then a rapid rise in temperature tomorrow afternoon. Wednesday looks like the temperatures will lower again. An unsettled spell but giving great early winter conditions. It is after all only November.