Torridon Blog & Mountain Info

Cloud base around 550m in this photo of the lower slopes of Creag Dhubh, at the east end of Beinn Eighe. Cloud lowered later in the morning as rain arrived from the east.

This recent small full depth release was obviously channelled down the lower part of this couloir on the southern flank of Beinn Eighe. I noted glide cracks appearing here around a week ago and they widened over the next days before it slid. Glide cracks (tension release cracks) predictably (kind of) appear in the same location each year. Not so easy to predict whether the slope will release full depth and even less predictable exactly when! Factors such as snowpack depth, snow density and weather conditions, for example, rain (free water) percolating the snowpack and lubricating the sliding surface.

Not much snow remains on the lower slopes of Lithach and Beinn Eighe, but a bit more persists in Coire an Laoigh of Beinn Eighe on the right.

Interesting cloud formations on and above Liathach.

Cloud swirling around Pyramid Buttress and the Fasarinen Pinnacles of Liathach. It is fairly common at this time of year to have temperature inversions around our mountain air masses which can affect wind speeds and the cloudscapes.