HEATWAVE OVER-COLD & FRESH SNOW IN THE CAIRNGORMS

Hard snow and cramponing up Coire an Lochain

A busy coire, 9 climbers in here toda, can you see them?

Avalanche debris just below the Great Slab

Ice! yeah!

Heading up the Coire

Poor visability this morning, spot the  Lochans

These guys are happy too

Snow and cloud cleared by afternoon

Thankfully the Tropical temperatures we have had since the weekend finally came to a grind last night. With much colder air and some steady snowfall this morning it is now looking more like January! I took a wander up into Coire an Lochain in The Cairngorms today to see how much snow loss since the monsoons. The corrie is looking great, under the few cm's of fresh stuff there is hard, crunchy snow. Great cramponing, in fact the best probably all season! I had to use my calf muscles today! Quite busy with at least 9 folk climbing. There was  big chunks of avalanche debris (Cornice?)  down by the Great Slab. By the time I got back to the car park the skies had cleared and it became drier. A good dusting of snow at lower levels, around 600m. A stormy period ahead and more snow fall. Temperatures up and down but no heatwave so it should be good conditions and plenty more snow, when we get the nice days that is another matter. You can't have good winter mountains without a few storms!