Myself and moffatross went on a very fine circuit of Blackhope today in the Borders. Blackhope is a cracking, short(ish) glen which drains into the much more benign Moffat Dale. It has the air of a Highland glen, with steep glaciated slopes, drumlins and hanging valleys. At the head of the glen lies the high hill of Hart Fell (2,650 ft). Our route (shown in the attachment below) took in the hills to the east, which afforded a great view over to the summit of Hart Fell. From these summits we could see that there was a lot of snow below the summit cone, on an easterly aspect. However, because there was a fair bit of new snow around it was difficult to know exactly which was old and which was new. Closer inspection would be required!
After circumventing the summit and attaining the north side of the hill (to check for the wreath that was present in 2014. Alas, not there!) we back-tracked to the summit area and then into the unnamed corrie east of the summit (
here). To our surprise, there was a very substantial amount of old snow, masked to some degree by the new stuff.
Hart Fell snow by
iainjamescameron, on Flickr
Still a good 3-4 metres of depth here, and I think it'll last well into May, especially given the cool forecast for the coming week.
Another fascinating aspect of today's trip was coming across avalanche debris from a new and old slide, both in the same place.
New avalanche debris
Avalanche debris by
iainjamescameron, on Flickr
Old avalanche debirs
Hart Fell avalanche by
iainjamescameron, on Flickr
Having now visited Hart Fell and Broad Law, and seeing the aspects that snow appears to be deepest, it seems to me that most of the snow that fell in the Borders came from the west and north west. That being the case, I suspect that the hills which represent the best chance of June survival are Broad Law, Cramalt Craig, Dollar Law and Hart Fell (in that order).
More visits to the Borders are required! Volunteers apply within!
My pictures of today are here: [
www.flickr.com]
moffatross's (much better) pictures are here: [
www.flickr.com]
Edited 1 times. Last edit at 21.23hrs Sat 2 May 15 by firefly.
Attachments:
Hart Fell route - 02.05.2015.JPG (155kB)