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firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 23.13hrs on Thu 24 Oct 13
Aha! Gary Hodgson was up Braeriach today and photographed what to me looks like Sphinx, and a wee bit at Michaelmas Fare, the remnants of the last snowfall. What do others think? [4.bp.blogspot.com]
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 18.18hrs on Sun 27 Oct 13
Was sent this photograph by Alasdair Anthony, from yesterday. Garbh Choire Mor. Sphinx looking ok, still with the new snow giving it a protective jacket. Michaelmas Fare also still there, but this is all new snow. Pinnacles looking shallow, also with snow protecting it. [twitter.com]

Another photograph, showing Sphinx and M Fare from a different angle. The new snow can be seen with the old. [t.co]

Click on the photos to enlarge.



Edited 2 times. Last edit at 18.20hrs Sun 27 Oct 13 by firefly.
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 12.35hrs on Mon 28 Oct 13
Aha! A supersize picture of Aonach Beag from afar, taken 26th October. Still substantial. A certainty for survival. [www.flickr.com]
DrHosking


Posts: 427
Joined: Jul 2004
Last Visited: 16:08
18th Mar 2019
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 15.26hrs on Mon 28 Oct 13
so are we still looking at 3 or 4 patches for survival? Charts today are substantially cooler than of late, with potential for some decent snow at last for the weekend, fingers crossed!
alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 18.03hrs on Mon 28 Oct 13
with potential for some decent snow at last for the weekend,


Potentially accompanied by some ferocious winds, there's been a couple of 95knots showing on the 850hpa wind charts from the GFS for the Cairngorms over the past 24 hours for later in the weekend into early next week.

On the stormiest charts the temps don't look that promising, but the pressure is so low the 850hpa height would be below the top station on CairnGorm.
alan


Posts: 10768
Joined: Nov 1994
Last Visited: 17:02
27th Mar 2024
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Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 12.01hrs on Thu 31 Oct 13
Snowing again on the top of Aonach Mor and blowing quite a bit too by the looks of things on the webcams, wind has knocked the outside camera squint in the last few days!


saints11


Posts: 16
Joined: Oct 2012
Last Visited: 14:45
24th Jul 2014
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 15.00hrs on Thu 31 Oct 13
Seems to have been reasonable snowfall at Cairngorm above about 2800ft blown in on strong sw wind. Should have assured that remaining gcm patches will survive this year.
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 22.16hrs on Thu 31 Oct 13
Alan, a couple of the troops are going up there at the weekend. I'm sure we can organise a righting of the wonky camera if you ask nicely!
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 22.22hrs on Thu 31 Oct 13
I think that's right. Photos from today [www.christownsendoutdoors.com] show good cover off a NW or W wind almost certain that GCM has caught a goodish dollop.

Chionophile and I reckon 9th October as the date lasting snow came to that location. Those falls were still very much in evidence up until a few days ago.
DrHosking


Posts: 427
Joined: Jul 2004
Last Visited: 16:08
18th Mar 2019
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 16.34hrs on Fri 1 Nov 13
looks like plenty on the cairngorm webcam, at Nevis the goose is covered from half way up too, Could this be the lasting snow for the western patches too? Forecast is of more of the same for weekend with snow above 700 to 800m and frequent freeze thaw cycles above 900m for the next week and more precipitation.
JonP


Posts: 1
Joined: Aug 2012
Last Visited: 22:41
1st Nov 2013
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 21.12hrs on Fri 1 Nov 13
Evening everyone, now that it appears the lasting fresh snow has arrived in the highlands. Please could somebody tell me how many snow patches actually survived from last year. I have followed this thread with interest for a couple of years it keeps the long summer evenings interesting. Many thanks Jon.
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 17.43hrs on Sat 2 Nov 13
The full results will be in tomorrow! The final visit of my season will be tomorrow, when I go up Observatory Gully on Ben Nevis.

Watch this space!
h11lly


Posts: 2150
Joined: Dec 2002
Last Visited: 18:38
2nd Sep 2019
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Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 17.44hrs on Sat 2 Nov 13
Well I hope the 'couple of your troops' are hardier than me, Firefly ! My original plans to head over to the Aonach Beag patch were curtailed at the summit due to the very strong wind, blowing snow, and because it had taken me much longer than planned to get up there having had to break trail through snow that was in some places 18 inches deep.
Photo was taken on the Goose tow track at a similar altitude to the Aonach Beag patch and the gap between my basket and top of my flick lock adjuster is 14 inches to give you an idea.
Skiing beside the tow tracks was very good from the summit to tower 4 of the Goose and by the time I was back at the top of the gondola the snow was lying to that level. Timed it right as they were on shut down due to the wind when I arrived back mid afternoon smiling smiley


Helen
firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 19.47hrs on Sun 3 Nov 13
Well, it looks as if the snow that has fallen in the last couple of days has done the trick. At least, for Ben Nevis (and I strongly suspect, Aonach Beag) it has.

RJ, Blair Fyffe and I ventured up into Observatory Gully today to try and locate the remaining snow that we strongly suspected was there. We hit snow just above the CIC hut, and by the time we arrived at the foot of Point 5 Gully we had waded through some pretty sizable drifts, some waist deep.

On the way up there I had a discussion with Blair on the likelihood of Point 5 still being there. He reckoned he was '70% sure' it was still there. I reckoned the mild weather had dealt it a deadly blow. As we approached it Blair looked less confident with every step. There was little sign of any old snow, but fortunately Blair had brought an avalanche probe and a shovel. We banged the probe in and... it didn't feel hard enough to be ground, but too hard to be new snow. A quick dig down with the shovel exposed a brick-hard bit of old snow, which we traced out the edge of. 7 metres x 6 metres x 1.2 metres deep.


Blair breathing a sigh of relief his confident prediction was right


Stuart probing the edges of Point 5 Gully

From there we walked across to the upper reaches of Observatory Gully, again through deep drifts. Where we expected to find the old snow was, again, covered with new stuff. This is where the experience comes in of slogging up there time-after-time. Trying to find the snow would have been a needle in a haystack job, but we settled on where we thought the snow would be, and banged the probe down. Bang! First time! A test pit was dug to make sure we had found our quarry.


Old, rock-hard snow at Observatory Gully

Again, we traced out the snow and found there actually to be two patches. The larger of these was 8m x 7m x 1.2 metres. The other was harder to measure, but no more than a couple of metres across and wide. Maybe half a metre deep.

All told, 3 patches found, and a fantastically rewarding day. The highlight was finding Point 5.

The snow that has fallen is lasting, almost without doubt. The forecast is for cool weather, and the extent of the cover on the old snow is such that even a prolonged period of melt will not seriously affect the final sizes.

I'll do a final summing up of the season in the next couple of days. Looks like a total of 6 patches survived. Confirmation to follow.


The boys doing their thing...

Full set of pictures (and a good video) here: [www.flickr.com]
paul-1970


Posts: 15
Joined: Jul 2009
Last Visited: 11:19
18th Dec 2018
Re: 2013 Scottish snow-patch season
Date Posted: 20.57hrs on Sun 3 Nov 13
A wonderful and inspiring day of fieldwork. And a fitting end to one of the best threads on the internet, for this year. Thanks again, Iain, and of course all the other snow-patch observists, enthusiasts and experts for the myriad of fascinating and exact reports we've enjoyed this year.

The 'worry' of losing the remaining snow patches really does become almost profound come October time, so I can very much share your elation with finding that Point Five won through to another season.

Again, my thanks for one of the most interesting and illuminating ongoing news stories that exist. Happily, for the next seven or so months, the thoughts can now turn to wondering about the quality of the snow that lies in the gullies and aspects, rather than the existence of!
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