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| Coire an Lochain |
May has continued wet and windy and cold with hints of snow
in the rain at low levels and scatterings of the real stuff on the tops. Much
snow is left from the winter too. From Aviemore great snowfields can be seen on
the walls of the Northern Corries of Cairn Gorm and the scalloped north face of
Braeriach. For a close-up view of the snow I wandered into Coire an Lochain on
a day of racing clouds, patches of blue sky and a damp chill in the air.
Below the dark cliffs high on the corrie’s back wall a wide
band of snow swept across the slopes to merge with a much more extensive
snowfield on the steep eastern flank, a snowfield that ran right down into the
cold grey waters of the lochan that lies in the heart of the corrie. The snow isn’t
as deep as it was in early June last year (see this post) but it actually
covers a larger area. A speckling of fresh snow lay on the western sun-exposed
side of the corrie. Although only a few miles from the car park it felt, as
always, remote and wild here, the snow giving it a touch of the arctic.
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| Floating ice |
Wandering round the lochan I stared across its dark surface
to plates of dirty snow floating in the water. Spattered with mud and earth
these looked like the debris from avalanches. Many little slides were visible
on the slopes above the lochan and there were bare patches where the snow had slid
off.
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| Unstable slopes |
Turning away from the snow and the lochan I pondered on
whether to climb to the summit of Cairn Lochan. The weather decided for me. I
had barely reached the corrie rim when I felt the first spots of rain on my
head. I looked back. The clouds were descending over the crags. The rain became
heavier. I headed for the car.
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| The clouds come down |
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