stob coire nan lochan

Stob Coire nan Lochan, Glencoe
Image from the SAIS Glencoe

A recent image from the Glencoe Scottish Avalanche Information Service blog showing snow conditions last week on the cliffs below Stob Coire nan Lochan. Springtime hits the mountains late here in Scotland.

ice mask

Ice mask, C.T. Madigan, between 1911-1914 / photograph by Frank Hurley

shackleton's advert

palimpsest

manuscript of text from Louis Agassiz

To appreciate it's beauty, this image from the archives really warrants zooming into. See also previous post on the work of Agassiz.

the parallel roads of glen roy

A picnic near the Zermatt Glacier
Louis Agassiz, from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

I recently learnt of the work of Louis Agassiz, the Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist and geologist and occasional artist. Agassis was an important figure in describing the movements and motions of glaciers, and whilst it was understood that much of our landscape is formed through glaciation, that ice had the power to shape the land, move vast boulders great distances and to grind down rock, he was the first to propose that the earth had recently undergone an ice age, and that vast tracts of land in europe had, in gelogical time, recently been covered with ice.

Hugi's hut on a medial moraine of the lower Aar glacier
Louis Agassiz, Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

Rocks polished and striated by a glacier
Louis Agassiz, from Etudes sur les glaciers, 1840

One of his more significant discoveries was made in Scotland when Agassiz finally unlocked the mystery of the parallel roads of Glen Roy when he proposed that the "roads" were not of a marine nature, as was erroneously proposed by Darwin, but were in fact caused by the rapid damming by a glacier of a loch in the period of the Loch Lomond stadial (a mini ice age around 12000 years ago, and lasting for a brief 600 years) and it's subsequent melting, in three stages.

the parallel roads of Glen Roy

I've spent much time walking and camping during winter in Glen Roy and have a favourite wild camp spot near Fersit. It's amazing to think that in the relatively recent past, this familiar valley would have been hidden under water, and my wild camp buried under a glacier near the head of Loch Trieg. I've seen the parallel roads marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, always rather assuming that they were indeed "roads", perhaps forestry tracks or some system of roads where a higher track existed to avoid boggy ground, but of course, that would eliminate the need for the lower tracks. Instead, they are completely natural, and lie on the horizontal, mapping, marking and measuring dramatic moments in the valley's past where the ice dams spectacularly broke and the glacial loch drained.

Stob Coire Easain (near Fersit), Dec 19th 2007

Celmins - to fix in the memory

Vija Celmins - To fix in the memory, 1977 - 82
(stones paired with identical painted bronze copies)

Wentworth

Richard Wentworth - Black Puddle, White Dip, 1981

Richard Wentworth - The Warwick Dials, 2000

Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis, Untitled, 1969

little snow

some amazing images of snow seen under a microscope...

falls

Whilst away for New Year, and unable to climb the mountains this year, we finally had a walk in the Hermitage, an NTS property I've driven past countless times on my way further north. This short clip is of the deeply frozen Falls of Braan on the River Braan seen from the viewing balcony at the end of Ossian's Hall, an 18th century folly created by the Duke of Atholl.


Falls of Braan from Lesley Punton on Vimeo.

Sgurr an Tuill Bhàin, Rock of the White Flood.

Walking on the summit ridge, descending Slioch, looking towards Sgurr an Tuill Bhan, Dec 2008

armchair mountaineering

L Punton, December 2010

gemenids 2010

Tonight is the annual peak of the Gemenid meteor shower, a real rival to August's Perseid shower and predicted to be the best display of "shooting stars" this year. A crescent moon will dull the intensity only until it sets after midnight, so it's best to view them after then. Look towards the constellation Gemini (hence the name Gemenids) to see these relatively slowly moving meteors. The radiant - the point from which the meteors appear to originate, is close to the bright star Castor in Gemini. Here in Scotland, the sky's currently clear so it could be an amazing night to view them.

This time last year, I posted from a freezing (-7 degree) wild camping trip, having climbed Gulvain, and remember watching this great shower in a remote spot in the Highlands away from the light pollution of the city.

cold camping last year...

There's also a lunar eclipse due just before dawn on the 21st December, though the conditions in the UK aren't optimal for viewing it as, at mid-eclipse at 8.16am, the moon will have virtually set and the sky brightening as the sun rises. The moon begins to enter the shadow of the earth at 5.29am when the moon is just under 30 degrees above the horizon. Slowly, the left hand side of the moon will darken until at 7.41am it will be within the umbral shadow.

mer de glace

L Punton, approaching storm, Mer de Glace, July 2007

..without knowing where to spot them, one perhaps would not realise that there is actually a group of people out on the ice in the middle of the picture who are on an alpine skills course to learn how to traverse glaciers and to get out of crevasses. The sense of scale is entirely deceptive.

detail of above showing location of walkers.

A few minutes later, the entire valley would be filled with cloud hugging the glacier, heavy rain and powerful winds.

See also my previous post on Ruskin's photographs of the mer de glace to see how much the great sea of ice has shrunk.

waxwing winter

Seen from my kitchen window, the same tree as in the last post, a few days later, and now host to a flock of waxwings. These unusual birds have been sighted often this winter with the berry crop in Scandinavia failing, forcing them to travel further afield.

postscript: thanks to Celine for pointing me towards this great piece of HD video footage.