Something I’ve always been interested in are the environmental conditions that are required for glaciers to form. Glaciers are often associated with high mountains and polar areas, and the major environmental factors that influence their existence are long-term climate trends (e.g. precipitation, average air temperatures and prevailing wind direction and strength), latitude and altitude, and local topography (e.g. slope angle and aspect).

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Three weeks ago I travelled to Lochaber to walk to the summit of Aonach Mòr. The purpose of the trip was to locate an area on the mountain which contains a long-lasting snowpatch from last winter. I’ve visited similar areas in the Cairngorm mountains many times (see several previous blog postings and my website page about perennial snow), but this was my first trip to sites in the Lochaber area.

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I’ve written a lot in my blog postings about snowfields that persist in mountainous regions at high altitudes into the summer months (and beyond), but there is a related phenomenon that I have only recently become aware of, and that is of winter ice persisting into the summer months in rock fissures (or fractures) and caves. These fissures can exist at any elevation and not necessarily in mountainous areas, and can provide a remarkably sheltered local environment deep within them that can collect snowfall in the winter months but are largely unaffected by the surrounding climatic conditions. Something related to these fissures is a geological feature known as an ‘Algific talus slope‘ although this is something that is new to me, but they seem to be, in effect, natural subterranean freezers!

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During my recent 2-day trip to Ben Macdui I took the opportunity to have a look and see what snowpatches are still surviving in the vicinity of the summit of Ben Macdui. This follows on from my trip to the Cairn Gorm – Ben Macdui plateau in early July (see the blog posting ‘Summer snowfields in the Cairngorms (3)‘).

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