Mild and Wet II
12th March 2016
More of the same today. Me and the snowpack had a common feature – wet through! Patchy snowpack, but large expanses of snow persisting at higher levels. Some summits and ridges bare of snow.
Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich. Patchy snow. Rain on the lens, not snow!
Tension release cracks in the wet snowpack. NE aspect at 600m, 40 degree incline on a convexity. There are small rocky outcrops beneath the snow, creating a localised steepening.
Ptarmigan changing plumage due to the increasing daylight hours. The male is changing faster. The female is practising her snowcraft skills – ‘heeling down’.
Snowpit. The thin darker lines in the white ‘newer’ snow are icy crusts. Older snow below the darkest crust layer. The icy crusts present a barrier which slows water percolating down through the snowpack. This can create a saturated weaker layer directly above the crust.
The south aspects of the Beinn Dearg hills.
Comments on this post
Got something to say? Leave a comment
