Hugely enjoyable trip up Creag Meagaidh yesterday to see what remained of the snow. I took the bike up from Aberarder right to Lochan a' Choire in Coire Ardair. A bit of a slog in places, but it meant the return journey took less than 20 minutes!
Anway...
I ventured up into Easy Gully to see the two very large patches still in evidence. The lower patch is the smallest, but there's still a good bit of life left in it, as you can see from the picture:
Easy Gully lower patch by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
IC in photo for scale by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
I estimate that this patch will easily survive, even though it was suffering badly in yesterday's very mild weather. There's enough of it there to persist, even if the current weather persists, for a good few weeks.
The upper patch was by far the largest. This is a racing-certainty for survival. I didn't go up to it, though, as the ground in Easy Gully was treacherous. Not so much the steepness, but there was a huge amount of very wet mud and rock, some of it moving worryingly when I traversed over it. I took my photos and got out of there pronto!
Easy Gully by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
I took a rather unconventional route onto the summit plateau, emerging from Easy Gully on to the large face which sits between Raeburn's and Easy gullies. The ground was steep but easily negotiated. From the top I peered in to see what remained of the snow that survived last year at the head of Raeburn's.
Raeburn's Gully patch close-up by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
The old snow was surrounded to a certain extent by new (24th October), but the patch itself seems to have missed out. It's pretty shallow, and I don't imagine that it'll take more than a couple of weeks of mild weather to finish it off.
The same is true for the patch west of Creag Meagaidh summit. Looked like the only patch visible in that area, though the mist did make observation tricky.
West of Creag Meagaidh summit by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
I saw the other two patches known to us and got a picture of each. The first is readily visible from the car park. It's east facing and touch-and-go for survival.
East facing patch, below Puist Coire Ardair by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
The second is Coire nan Gall of Carn Liath, which sits at an altitude of about 910 metres (just below 3000 ft). If you look at the picture closely you can see chunks of the snow have come off and fallen to the bottom of the coire. Very steep ground.
by
Iain Cameron, on Flickr
All told, eight patches visible yesterday. Of those, assuming we go back to seasonal weather, I would hope that 4 or 5 will survive.