Monday 22 February 2010

Snowdonia fun

I have been out of the office for the last week - a planned trip to Scotland for some winter action was halted when my camper van's head gasket went bang (and so did my bank balance!). So after staying home in Snowdonia I got up to a few things here.

Wednesday
Decided to head out with friends Alan and Alan (makes climbing a nightmare with shouting names!). The plan was a reasonably straight forward winter climb around grade II-III as I still struggled to look aver my right shoulder and down at my feet.
Alan decided he wanted to do Clogwyn Du Left Hand (5) and then move into Right Hand (III). I opted for leading the crux pitch as the conditions were too inspiring to miss and for the next hour dragged myself up the icy groove and made the exciting right exit and into easier ground.

Carried on up the Right Hand and the last pitch had a very tricky ice umbrella to pass which gave some tricky moves and spat Alan off at one point! We finished and walked back down Senior's Ridge and then home.


Thursday
Rory and I headed out to Carnedd Ugain - starting in true fashion at Pete's Eats with breakfast.
We did the sweaty walk into the bottom of Sinister Gulley (grade III, 4) and made our way to the main pitch. Snow conditions were a bit questionable on the lower slopes and so we took caution in traveling. Lots of graupel and wind-slab snow around.
I took the lead on the crux pitch which was in great condition, but a little short and then we did 4 full rope length pitches to the top of Garnedd Ugain. A truly great place to top out.

Friday
I had planned a relaxing day at home and the pager went off just before lunch.
We were called to a assist a chap who had got lost on Snowdon in poor visibility and wondered onto steep ground.
We walked up from the Snowdon Ranger Path and joined up with the other part of our team and managed to get the chap out of a steep section of slope on Clogwyn Coch (the search took a long time to locate the casualty). This involved lowering team members over 100m down steep snow to get to the casualty.

Once on better ground we walked down to a flat area below Allt Mosses and the aircraft was able to land on, but then got grounded in bad weather and we had to wait for 45min before we could fly away.

Saturday
Took a stroll up Snowdon via the Llanberis Path and was able to 'skin' up-hill with my skis all the way to the summit. Once there I had a bite to eat and enjoyed the fine views and skied down to the finger stone and went up to Garnedd Ugain. Once there, I waited for an hour for clear weather and then skied down on great snow to the half way house (about 3 min!).

It was a great day out and a ski that I had wanted to do for some time now.
The conditions are full winter with lots of snow and ice, so crampons and ice axe, combined with knowledge are needed for safe travel. I am glad to say that there were many folks well equipped, but also many ill prepared and unaware of the potential dangers (the Snowdon Crazy Award goes to the 2 guys who climbed Parsley Fern Gully with no crampons and ice axes!).

Sunday
I had planned a climbing day in Ogwen, but after arriving there and seeing how much snow had fallen, I opted for a walk around Cwm Idwal and an afternoon of film watching!

Bryn
MLTW National Development Officer

nb. here's a pic of the graupel from Cwm Glas - take care now as it's snowed a lot on top of this layer over the last few days.

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