Along with most of the other climbers based in the south of the UK, the forecast of heavy snow followed by sunny days was too much, so we headed on a last minute trip to Wales.
We joined a number of other vans in a quiet car park for Friday night, before joining the rush out the car park and onto the hills. The snow was plastering most of the hillside and although deep drifts were likely in the gullies, the icy paths and blue sky got us excited for some ridge based winter climbing. However, as we approached our intended ridge (Cneifion Arete), the snow was refusing to crisp up and the rock was looking decidedly black. A close inspection showed unfrozen turf on the crux and no ice or snow, so we passed. Another team decided to give a ‘summer’ ascent a go, and we watched from afar as they made possibly the slowest ascent ever seen.
We headed for objective two, an ascent of Seniors Ridge. However, the 2 inch crust of snow delighted in cracking under any weight, often resulting in sinking to knee depth. Any attempted respite from breaking trail was in vain, as the snow had a wonderful secondary compaction quality. Whenever the second (or indeed the lead, if they stopped and restarted) put weight on compacted snow, it gave way to greater depth. An adventurous spirit, dogged determination and misplaced optimism about better (colder) conditions higher up meant that the tempting looking gullies were sought out, only to be floundered up finding ever more frequent waist deep holes. Packs full of unused winter climbing gear and warm layers (it was quite warm) simply added to the excitement by increasing the chances of toppling over and requiring extra effort to extract limbs from the depths of the snow.
The fun ended too soon, and we were on the top by lunchtime, so after a quick relocation on the summit of Glyder Fawr, we headed over to Glyder Fach. The wind scoured plateau and a path that was well compacted by the huge crowds meant it was easy going. Until I got bored and attempted the direct route out of the col onto Castell y Gwynt. Once again into the holes and crusty deep snow covering a boulder field. After about 30 minutes of slogging, we came over the top and back onto the path, 200m from where we had left it. A quick jaunt up to see the cantilever, and we were once again tempted off the path towards the top. It soon became apparent that no-one had attempted to reach the summit of Glyder Fach. The summit being a massive boulder field with human sized holes covered in snow, this is hardly surprising and once we remembered this, we also aborted. Some of the most tiring and trickiest conditions we have ever been out in.
Our final excitement for the day was a descent of Y Gribin, which had been heavily compacted over the day, giving compact slippery snow; an excellent complement to the morning’s powder which might have been slightly less interesting had we bothered to put crampons on.
A pub meal followed by another night in a friendly car park meant we were raring to go on Sunday morning, and an ascent of Snowdon from Rhyd Ddu was chosen as a new route up an old mountain. The final ridge was airy (but cloudy) and good fun. We didn’t stay long up high due to excess people, but descended over slippy grass, slippy rock and slippy snow before making a quick ascent of Y Garn and heading home via the usual chippy.
Yellow Van Mountaineering 