Be safe out there:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/19/avalanche-kills-four-climbers-highlands

Morroi

Avalanche 3341 - 19/01/2013 14:00:00
Party of 6 descending from Bidean W top to Stob coire nam Beith , descended coulouir NE.set off avalanche, carried to below Church Door Buttress, 1 escaped at top, 5 carried and 4 buried 1 on surface.

From Scotland Avalanche Information Service - http://www.sais.gov.uk/

Avalanche risk 2 - considerable

I notice the BBC report said risk 2, considerable and described this as a “low” risk. Scotland uses the 5 level European scale so this should be risk 3/5, AFAIKS.

Thanks for the updates, a reminder that climbers and ascending ski tourers, are very vulnerable.

The SAIS website and forecasts are excellent.

Hamish MacInnes had this to say

Earlier in the day, I was speaking to someone and I said that this area posed a serious avalanche risk. The wind was very strong and it was breaking the snow into tiny particles, which was falling on the slope and just hanging there. It was very unstable because it couldn’t stick together and compress like normal snow. It was very dangerous. I would not have been out there climbing on a day like that.

but Hamish is pretty conservative. I guess he lives there so only goes out in good conditions.

I looked at the avalanche risk a bit more. Remember it is only an estimate and has to be complemented by observations on the ground. Sais were saying low to moderate with patches of considerable. It is a good way at looking at things, compared to giving a single headline figure. The Savoie avalanche forecaster has used similar terms in the past: risk 2 but risk 4 in north facing couloirs, for example. And of course guide Claude Rey once said “globally conditions are good, locally there is a risk of death”, which sums up the tapistery that makes up the winter snowpack quite well.

davidof - 20 January 2013 06:08 PM

I looked at the avalanche risk a bit more. Remember it is only an estimate and has to be complemented by observations on the ground. Sais were saying low to moderate with patches of considerable. It is a good way at looking at things, compared to giving a single headline figure.

I’ve often thought the SAIS report is the best around, the graphical representation is very good. I did wonder if the obvious confusion in the press is that their more informed reporters have only just grasped a scale of one to five and can’t get their heads around the variability. That made me question if the SAIS bulletin was quite as obvious as I thought it was. But, I think it is obvious, the skill to read it is fairly rudimentary and consistent with the skill required to apply any forecast.

Claude Rey once said “globally conditions are good, locally there is a risk of death”.

Spot on.