The way the wind blows.
19th February 2026
A journey into Coire an Laoigh on Beinn Eighe to see what mischief the wind had been up to over the last few days, re-distributing the snow here in the Torridon range. It worked well as I was able to head up a steep Easterly aspect, that had previously had windslab on it, and then pop over the other side, onto a more Westerly aspect to see how much had blown over onto it.
There was still some shallow older windslab with instabilities on the Easterly aspect, and also some fresher moderately bonded slab on the Westerly aspect.
All this means is that whilst we don’t have any significant depth to our problematic snow here in Torridon, we do have it spread around on most aspects. Another good visual today was the amount of cross-loading that had occurred in South Facing gullies, due to the recent Easterly wind re-distribution. And the Torridon hills do have a few South facing gullies !
A change starts tomorrow with milder weather and some rain to the summits creating a period of wet instability in the snowpack that we do have. More detail is, as always, in the main forecast.
Beinn Eighe from the Torridon road.
Liathach in the morning light.
Sgurr nan Fhir Dubhe. Showing recent crossroading, and deposition from South Easterly winds. The deposition clearly being shown by the light / shadow on the left hand main gully line.
Looking up Coire an Laoigh, Beinn Eighe
Liathach, with an ominous gloom in the West !
West facing flank of Stuc Coire an Laoigh, showing recently deposited windslab.
Looking East towards Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe and the Black Carls in the distance.
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