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Davie_Mac


Posts: 8
Joined: Dec 2011
Last Visited: 21:50
18th Mar 2019
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 13.07hrs on Thu 4 Dec 14
I took a stroll over to Sgor an Lochain Uaine on Mon and confirm there was a patch of old snow in Garbh Choire Mor. Is probably buried now as there was a lot of snow blowing into the coire. I have a photo that I will email to you .

Cheers, Dave

firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 19.01hrs on Thu 4 Dec 14
Davie_Mac's photo from Monday of Garbh Choire Mor (thanks, Davie!) shows very well the Sphinx patch, semi-buried.

Garbh Choire Mor - 01.12.2014 (David MacIntyre) by iainjamescameron, on Flickr

Larger version here: [www.flickr.com]

As you can see in the background, Pinnacles almost buried save for a wee bit of grey poking through. Who can see it?!

Another wider-angle photo here:

Garbh Choire Mor - 01.12.2014 (David MacIntyre) by iainjamescameron, on Flickr

Not visible is Michaelmas Fare, which is undoubtedly now well buried, as I suspect all these ones will be by the end of the weekend.

h11lly


Posts: 2150
Joined: Dec 2002
Last Visited: 18:38
2nd Sep 2019
What's this?What's this?What's this?
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 20.56hrs on Thu 4 Dec 14
Snowpatch94 I think your patch looks like it's in the hollow just above the top of the ptarmigan tow . The one I found on the 30th was at the top of Marquis Wells. Some pics here [www.flickr.com]

Helen

Da kishman


Posts: 308
Joined: Nov 2003
Last Visited: 17:31
10th Jan 2018
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 08.02hrs on Fri 5 Dec 14
Aye, Helen, ur plateau shot does show the patch at the FB slabs!

firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 11.25hrs on Fri 5 Dec 14
I think we're entering the home straight now, thankfully! The snow of the last 24 hours has delivered in the right places. Zero Gully now looks as though it's got a good coating (see attached), and that means in all probability Aonach Beag will have, too. If the forecasted snow comes over the next day or so then that will be it.

From the MWIS:
Precipitation will be considerable on western mountains, particularly W & NW Highlands. Freeze thaw cycles across higher areas, although from late Tuesday for 48 to 60 hours, freezing levels will be around 700m metres, resulting considerable snow on many western mountains, accumulating significantly leeward (east) of summits and ridges.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 11.25hrs Fri 5 Dec 14 by firefly.

Attachments: Ben Nevis - 05.12.2014.JPG (74kB)  
triguy


Posts: 20
Joined: Jan 2010
Last Visited: 12:49
23rd Feb 2015
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 13.35hrs on Fri 5 Dec 14
Captured the attached images on a run over Lochnagar last Sunday (30th November). Pictures were taken from entrance to Black Spout looking towards Central Buttress at about the 950 metre countour. Images are not the sharpest but I can send the full size ones if anyone wants them.
Wasn't sure if either of the patches were extant but it could be remotely possible that the most Easterly one was due to it being in a deep NNW facing re-entrant at about 1030 metre contour. This is only visible from east of the summit on the plateau.
Probably wont know now that Lochnagar is now white again, hopefully for a few months!

Attachments: DSC_0440.JPG (222kB)   DSC_0439.JPG (195kB)   DSC_0438.JPG (95kB)  
Timberline


Posts: 491
Joined: Apr 2010
Last Visited: 20:54
24th Feb 2021
What's this?What's this?What's this?
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 19.37hrs on Fri 5 Dec 14
Triguy, thanks for posting the photos here. Unless others have a different view, I'm fairly sure these are not "original" patches surviving from last winter. In August I reached Cac Carn Beag (summit of Lochnagar) by the north-east ridge, and in October I went right out to the top of Black Spout Buttress (the NW enclosing edge of the Black Spout) with the hope of seeing otherwise invisible parts of the cliffs. Typically, I didn't take photos from these points, but it seems likely those patches would have been visible if they had been there -- and I would have remembered it. But as you suggest, those cliffs are quite complex, so it was definitely a question worth asking!

Chionophile


Posts: 692
Joined: Jan 2009
Last Visited: 22:07
24th Jan 2016
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 21.24hrs on Fri 5 Dec 14
Yes, Colin, you are right. The last old snow on Lochnagar, a patch below Parallel Buttress, vanished many weeks ago.

triguy


Posts: 20
Joined: Jan 2010
Last Visited: 12:49
23rd Feb 2015
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 17.13hrs on Sun 7 Dec 14
Thanks gents, didn't really think it was an old patch but it did look "interesting".


firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 15.59hrs on Mon 8 Dec 14
It will come as little surprise to anyone who's been looking to the hills of late that snow has well-and-truly arrived. Chionophile and I, in a conversation, agreed that all locations now have lasting snow at them, and it's time (at last!) to stop worrying about what will make it through the year to the new season.

By our reckoning, a total of 21 patches of snow has survived. These are:

Cairn Gorm/MacDui - 3 (2 at Coire an Lochain, one at Feith Buidhe slabs)
Braeriach - 3 (Garbh Choire Mor)
Creag Meagaidh - 1 (Raeburn's Gully)
Aonach Beag - 3 (2 at An Agaidh Gharbh, 1 below NE face)
Aonach Mor - 3 (1 at Protalus, 2 at Piranha)
Ben Nevis - 8 (2 at Zero Gully, 2 at Point 5, 1 at upper Ob Gully, 3 in Coire na Ciste)

Of the highlights this year, the survival at Creag Meagaidh has to go down as notable. This is the first patch of snow to survive outwith the Nevis area and Cairngorms since 2000, and the first on that hill since 1994.

Other notable instances are the Garbh Uisge Beag patch being outlasted by the one on the Feith Buidhe slabs, and the location of the Coire an Lochain patches compared to where they are normally.

The biggest disappointment was the 'close but no cigar' award to Carn na Caim, which I thought was going to make it. If lasting snow had come just a couple of weeks earlier... Also, Ciste Mhearad failing by only a matter of days to survive is disappointing, particularly for Da kishman, who I know was willing it to pull through!

The largest patch to endure was on Nevis. The upper Observatory Gully patch was in the region of 70 metres long at last viewing, and the final size won't be far off that. Hot on its heels was Aonach Beag, which will have been only a few metres shorter.

It really only remains to say a huge 'thank you' to the contributors on here, whose work makes the compilation of the annual paper so much more accurate, with precise measurements and melt-dates now becoming standard.

I hope that everyone on here has enjoyed the thread this year (86,000 views) and will keep up the good work in 2015.

Enjoy the winter!

Best,
Iain



Edited 3 times. Last edit at 16.55hrs Mon 8 Dec 14 by firefly.

Snowweasel


Posts: 395
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 11:14
16th Apr 2021
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 16.30hrs on Mon 8 Dec 14
I didn't contribute, but I've really enjoyed the thread as always. Thanks to all who've been out and brought a breath of the Highlands to me in my English Midlands office! Now, let's go skiing!

SussexSnow


Posts: 406
Joined: Sep 2003
Last Visited: 06:43
18th Apr 2019
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 07.23hrs on Wed 10 Dec 14
I thought that the snow measurers of Scotland might appreciate this beautiful photo essay about a Russian meteorologist who works in a remote Arctic measure station alone. [www.newyorker.com]

pocketpete


Posts: 2
Joined: Jul 2014
Last Visited: 15:52
14th Apr 2020
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 19.04hrs on Thu 18 Dec 14
Yes Certainly nice to see the snow up in the highlands. Not had any in the Peak District to speak off which seems unusual as Kinder Scout usually gets a bit at this time of year.

It's only 250 miles to the snow. I just wish you could Ski down here. Well done to all the reporters. Lets hope we have plenty of snow around for my birthday in June next year.

firefly


Posts: 2149
Joined: May 2006
Re: 2014 Scottish snow patch season
Date Posted: 00.00hrs on Fri 26 Dec 14
Those of you with *very* keen eyes will be able to spot a not-yet-fully-buried Point 5 Gully patch in this SAIS photo from today. [lochaberblog.sais.gov.uk]

Fear not, as it won't have any bearing on the final tally, as the patches that survived were huge.

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