Avalanche on eBothy Blog

west highland railway avalanche

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The West Highland Railway was closed between Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy for quite a while round about the end of February/beginning of March this year due to a couple of avalanches on Ben Odhair that covered the line and the West Highland Way. On the way back from Nephew Conrad’s christening in Glasgow, I took some pics from the bus.

You can see all the pics here.

a grim start to the winter

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The Avalanche information service SAIS have been warning about the very still, calm conditions that have been the norm over the last fortnight or so in the Scottish mountains. This lets phenomenally beautiful but deadly crystals grow in the still air:

working out the slope angle the hard way

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I was idly browsing January’s TGO, yes it’s only December but the mag is a month ahead and alongside the usual excellent content, there was an article on winter navigation. Now, as I’m heading for Winter ML assessment next winter (consolidation this winter), I took note of some points, especially the bit where it said that 6 index contours in 1cm on a 1:50,000 map is a slope angle of 30deg. That’s the most common angle for big avalanches, so it helps to be able to spot one on the map when you’re planning your day out in the winter mountains. Where does that number come from though? Well, with the rain lashing the windows and the gale rattling the slates (bit wild at the eBothy today), I thought I’d brush up some ancient maths skills to find out.

a good call

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Today was forecast to be the better of the weekend days, so I left the house at 8am and was walking up beside the burn from the Eas nan Arm bridge near the 1715 battleground at the top of Glen Shiel by about 9. I sat in the car for a bit, listening to the radio, while heavy rain showers passed over, then headed up beside the trees on waterlogged and boggy ground. At the top of the trees, there’s a hole in the fence that lets you reach the main forest exit onto the open hillside and it was here that I realised I’d left the camera in the car! Not that there was much to see, with constant blizzards sweeping in from the west and reducing viz to about 30m.