6 minute read
Ice Caves
EXPLORING LOCHABER’S ICE CAVES
Neil Adams It is a common misconception that most snow and ice is to be found on the tops of mountains. Even during the Ice Age, this was never really the case. Although more snow might fall on the tops, due to a combination of wind and gravity most of this snowfall ends up just below the peaks, plateaus and ridges.
Advertisement
It is in the high level corries and gullies that most of the wind-blown and avalanched snow ends up. Here it gets trapped in shaded hollows, nooks and crannies and, as more snow builds up over the course of a Scottish winter, this snow gets compacted into ice. Under its own weight, the upper layers of snow squeeze out air from the lower layers forming blue or névé ice. The beautiful turquoise and sky-blue tones in this ice result from the fact that blue light has a shorter wavelength, meaning it can penetrate the ice more deeply than other colours of the spectrum with longer wave-lengths.
This is as close to a glacier as we will ever see in present day Scotland. It is, nonetheless, a special sight to behold. It is also a sight that can be hard to find, difficult to get to and impossible to see if we have a mild winter.
Ice caves are actually better in summer than winter. Although heavy winter snowfall is obviously essential for their formation, so is the spring and summer thaw, as meltwater streams carve out substantial tunnels beneath the compacted snow. The warm spring air then takes over, swirling around the caves and forming the stunning, yet characteristic, scalloped pattern of the ceiling.
Great care is needed in getting down into a cave and I’m always much happier if the bed of the gully is not too steep, so I’m looking for the clefts which extend well down the mountain. Getting wet comes with the territory, although it can be surprisingly warm
in the caves as spring air is drawn up through the tunnels.
And so it is that, over the years, I have found numerous ice caves in the mountains I look up to every day from my garden. Moreover, last spring yielded two new special discoveries.
The first was to come across thousands of frogs.
In itself, this is not an unusual spectacle in the lochans and streams at this time of year: I’ve seen otters up this high feasting on the frogs. What made this unique, though, was that they were clearly sunbathing on the snowy slopes and just as comfortable sliding down on their bellies as hopping up on their feet.
The second discovery was a phenomenon known as red or watermelon snow. This is an algae that grows on the snow pack at high altitudes and blooms only when the surface starts to melt. So if you see a scarlet tinge to the snow pack, you don’t have to rub your eyes in disbelief.
Winter brings with it a completely different type of ice cave: not so much caves of ice but glistening rock caverns and overhangs decorated with frozen water. The freeze-thaw cycle, so loved - and feared - by ice climbers, produces miniature ice sculptures in the damp, shaded spots where modest winter mountaineers like myself can more safely wander. Frozen waterfalls might only happen once every five years in Lochaber, but droplets of water seeping down rock faces freeze more readily and form fingers of blue and clear ice. Standing behind these icy curtains in the mouth of a cave or the shelter of a projecting rock brings to mind prehistoric man - yet here I am with a hot flask of tea and a view of my classroom in Fort William.
A summer visit to an ice cave is not complete, of course, without a cooling dip in water that is near zero in temperature. Well, if top athletes are recommended to take an ice bath after performing, who am I to question the benefits of an icy dip after a hard uphill slog? That theory was just fine, until I tried to convince my wife...
Delivering All Aspects Of Civil Engineering.
New Build & Extension Groundworks Sewers & Septic Tanks Concrete & Steel Work Kerbing & Paving Works Bell Mouths & Access Roads Tar Surfaced Driveways & Car Parks Cable & Water Pipe Tracks Retaining Walls Excavation Works Excavators For Hire With Operator
Mob. 07528 801393 | info@gordongeorgeconstruction.co.uk
The changing face of Fort William’s West End from the bustling1900s to its destruction by fi re in 2019.
M & L PAINTERS
* All types of UPVc work * Exterior Painting * Cladding * Gutterings * Down Pipes * Windows and
Eaves * Facias and Soffits Tel 01397 712120 or 0755 311 1093
Michael J Kennedy
Painters & Decorators
For High Quality Workmanship
Ames Taping, Coving, Airless Spray, New Builds Commercial, Industrial & Domestic
53 Castle Dr, Lochyside, Fort William Mob 0780 335 7221 Tel 01397 703893
Established 1988
Chlaram Computer Services
For all your Laptop/PC repairs and upgrades, wireless/internet setups and custom builds
Distance no object - covering all areas from Oban to Mallaig to Fort Augustus.
Graeme Fallows Banavie 01397 773 197 Graeme@gmx.us
Members John Ferguson & Caroline Ferguson
• First time Buyer • Buy to Let • Home mover • re-mortgages • CapitaL raising • CommerCiaL
(for commercial mortgages we act as introducers)
Call to speak with a Professional Mortgage Adviser for a free initial consultation: 01397 705848
F 01397 703537 m 07899670260 e info@johnferguson-mortgages.co.uk m Morvern, Glen Nevis Fort William PH33 6PF johnferguson-mortgages.co.uk
