Buachaille Etive Beag
2nd March 2025
It was a dry but windy day on Buachaille Etive Beag. It was also quite busy with lots of walkers out, which is always good to see. The temperature had dropped overnight, which after yesterday’s slightly milder conditions, had given the snowpack a bit of a crust. A similar day is expected tomorrow before turning mild and damp on Tuesday. Snow cover is relatively shallow as compared to some previous years (see the photos at the end of the post), and would not take much in the way of mild damp weather for much of it to go.
It was busy on the path up to the Buachaille Etive Beag col today. In the winter of 2010 a large natural avalanche from the hill in the background swept across this section of the path. Fortunately there was no one on that section at the time.
The slope up from the col catches the snow quite well. Although white looking, the cover is relatively shallow and after a few days of mild damp weather the vast majority of it will be gone.
Looking over to Stob Coire nan Lochan, the summit of which was in cloud most of the day.
The view along to Stob Dubh.
The view back up to point 902m from the Buachaille Etive Beag col. There were lots of people on the hill today, I counted 14 people when I took this picture. However, I suspect many of them will just be single black pixels in this image.
Over in the ski area. This shot of the ski patrol hut and start of the summit tow was taken yesterday. It would have looked very similar today. I thought I might compare snow cover this year to this time in 2014 which was a big snow winter, see image below.
The summit tow in 2014. The ski patrol hut is there, it is buried in the snow. I remember going inside it, and the inside being slight warped and deformed by the pressure of the snow.
The top of the Wall T-bar at the moment.
Ski Patrol digging out the top of the Wall T-bar in February 2014.
The summit T-Bar at the moment.
Skiers heading up beside the summit T-bar in late February 2014.
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