Errigal mountain was cloaked with its first snowfall of 2019 this week – and along with it came an amazing natural spectacle experienced by one lucky adventurer.
Rock climber Iain Miller of Unique Ascent was on the summit of Donegal’s highest mountain on Friday when he saw a ‘Brocken Spectre’ shadow. This is a rare light phenomenon that occurs on mountains when a person’s shadow is cast in front of them onto clouds or mist.
The strange and sometimes spooky figure is usually surrounded by a circular halo.
Iain’s shadow was made even more stunning this week as it was set against the snow-capped Errigal.
“This one was the biggest I have ever seen being approx 100 metres in diameter,” Iain told Donegal Daily.
The Brocken Spectre light event was named after the Brocken mountain in Germany, where the weather effect was first recorded.
https://twitter.com/UniqueAscent/status/1086274494430294017
A very specific combination of conditions is needed for the figure to appear.
In Iain’s case, he said he had a thick cloud to the east of Errigal, which mean the sun was casting Errigal’s summit shadow onto the clouds to the north east. Iain and fellow climber Mickey Coll were met with ‘good snow’ and thick ice cover near the top of the mountain on this day.
Iain was also one of the first people to experience the first snow of 2019 on Errigal. He took the below video on Thursday morning when the snow line was down to 400m:
Thanks to Unique Ascent for sharing the above images and videos.
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