Evidence of huge avalanche recorded in Cairngorms

[macq23]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-32015917

I knew it was big.....didn't realise how big it was though when I saw Glas Tulaichean on sunday

glas tulaichean

[Kevin29035]

Wow!

[cmarcol]

This is the exact same spot almost a year ago to the day.
Just waiting to go! At least it's not the type of place anyone would be walking to be caught.
Avalanches will always be top of my fascination/fear list!

[Caberfeidh]

Avalanches will always be top of my fascination/fear list!

The Cairngorms are the place for spectacular avalanches ~ I remember sitting on a rock by the side of the frozen expanse of Loch Etchacan, looking across the ice at the snow-plastered cliffs on the other side. The sun was shining on the glowing white gullies and enormous cornices. Suddenly and silently, huge blocks the size of buses peeled off the cornices and fell into the loch, smashing the ice and sending up cascades of water. The sound rumbled across the frozen loch and echoed around the hills. Great boulders and showers of stones and tons of gravel fell too. I decided to re-evaluate my decision-making paradigm regarding climbing frozen gullies above Loch Etchacan...

[cmarcol]

I decided to re-evaluate my decision-making paradigm regarding climbing frozen gullies above Loch Etchacan...

A sensible decision and probably the reason you're here to tell the story today. I've never actually seen an avalache happen but I did look at a couple coming down Ben Vorlich at the start of the year. Looked at my lunch for a second and looked back and they had been avalanched (walked away). That's as close as I ever want to get

[prog99]

Good related thread on UKC.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=612230
Depthhoar was/still is a SAIS forecaster so knows his stuff.

On saturday I was climbing on the ben and the stillness was broken on several occasions by large crashes as anything in the sun started detaching itself.

[Paul Webster]

I was up Glas Tulaichean this week. For those who don't follow Walkhighlands on Facebook or Twitter, this massive broken block still remained above the avalanche site:

[Shug]

Anyone else wondering how cool it'd be if you could jump on that and surf it to the bottom?

[Caberfeidh]

Anyone else wondering how cool it'd be if you could jump on that and surf it to the bottom?

Doug Haston had a similar theory regarding skiing in front of a powder avalanche in the Alps, using the air pressure pushed in front of the powder avalanche to propel him at great speed and stay safely in front of the snow...