To be honest, the snow doen Eldon Hole is more like a Victorian Ice House as it is about 200 feet deep and when there is an appreciable amount of snow down there it can persist for many months. The ambient temperature in caves, once you are well away from the entrance, is roughly the average for the location, so it would be fairly cool down there without the snow anyway. Quite different from snow persisting on the surface.
Paul reckons there is a good few feet of depth there. Be interesting to know exactly how much has settled at the bottom.
Should be popping down tomorrow depending upon how lazy we're feeling!
a tiny ephemeral corrie glacier may have subsisted there as late as 1810", and Moran states it is "the most likely spot in Britain for glacier regeneration" but pessimistically states that if present warming trends continue "Scotland's mountain winter would be but a fond memory in a hundred years' time".
<...>All well known to ronofcam through academic articles , I'm sure, but Moran's popular account may be of interest to cavers who go hill walking.
Moran does have gentle dig at researchers such as ronofcam: "The few dirty patches of near-perennial snow have roused a volume of research and emotion out of all proportion to their extent or scenic significance."
You could do worse things in life than learn how to cave mate.
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