FEITHE BUIDHE SLABS

Feithe Buidhe Slabs

Another tight squeeze

Scrambling slabs

More of these than humans

Plenty Snow Bunting too

Thick

Cow-wheat

Saxifrages love it here

Here today, gone tomorrow?

Climbing

Great spot for scrambling

Not as much snow as 2013

A slow change in the weather pattern at the moment. Gone is the heat and clear skies of the last 3 weeks or so, replaced with more cloud and cooler temperatures. Today the cloud base was around 500m. A gloomy mountainside this morning but by mid day it lifted above most summits in The Cairngorms. It kept the hills quiet anyway. Saw no one all morning and most of the day. The Feithe Buidhe slabs down towards Loch Avon are a magical place. A wonderful, scenic and impressive area with a sense of wild and remote. In the Spring/Summer of 2013 we had far more large area of snow patches lingering through till about August. That winter saw huge amounts of snow and the winter continued right through till mid May. This left a good depth on the remaining snow. Not this year. The slabs that run down from the plateau to Loch Avon cling onto snow for prolonged periods. The nature of the terrain underneath usually creates quite impressive 'snow tunnels'. Today there was just one and a very tight squeeze it was. Still worth investigating. It's a great spot for scrambling so a fun way back up to the plateau. Plenty of ptarmigan in the area and some wonderful snow buntings singing away throughout the day.
Get ready for a big change on Thursday. Lots of rain and high winds on the tops. So was that summer?