Tuesday 29 December 2009

A Grand Day Out on Glyder Fawr

Yesterday was one of those special days in the mountains. Snowdonia is well covered in snow and ice at the moment and with a good forecast I decided to bail from my mums and drive back to the mountains. After a couple of days of thaw followed by a heavy frost I thought that the ice in Idwal might be in good nick. So we hiked up to the Devils Kitchen only to find that most of the lines were not complete, very wet and thin. Time for plan B - Cwm Cniefion, which is probably the most reliable spot for winter conditions. So we walked up over the top of Glyder Fawr on perfect hard snow and in bright sunshine. The views were just stunning.


Snowdon from Glyder Fawr

We then climbed down into Cwm Cneifion and decided on Hidden Gully - a great little grade 2 with a couple of icy steps. It was in great condition and a real joy to climb. We finished the day off by descending the Gribin Ridge - a summer grade 1 scramble.

Take care out there folks - the rescue teams have been very busy and the paths are very icy! In fact the most dangerous part of yesterday was walking down from Llyn Bochlywd. The weather here now is properly grim - windy with sleet, and snow supposed to be arriving soon.