It’s survived! The UK’s oldest and most permanent patch of snow is safely buried under a duvet of fresh snow and will live to see another spring. Known as the Sphinx, this icy pocket situated in an isolated corrie on Britain’s third highest mountain, Braeriach, in the Scottish Cairngorms range, is thought to have melted only seven times in the past 300 years.
Counting and measuring the pockets of snow that persist year-round is a passion for Iain Cameron. For 15 years, he and his team of volunteers have been tramping the highlands of Scotland, England and Wales, keeping an eye on snow patches. Their records are providing a valuable indicator of the climate crisis.
Having first melted completely in 1933, the Sphinx has become more vulnerable in recent years, failing to survive in both 2017 and 2018. But after a wild and gruelling walk, including a camp-out in a bothy, Cameron reports that about nine sq metres of Sphinx have made it through summer 2019.
The story of the Sphinx is a highlight in an otherwise gloomy report, which shows accelerated disappearance of all snow patches and none surviving beyond 22 May in England and Wales this year.
