Cneifion Arete

Ive been out today on my own in the Glyders. Mooched up to Cwm Cneifion and decided on a scramble up the Cneifion Arete into the clouds, followed by Y Gribin Ridge onto Glyder Fawr, then after some searching in the clouds, a descent of Senior's Ridge.
It was nice to be back in the mountains again after a couple of weeks away.

Top pic: The route up the Cneifion Arete.
Bottom pic: Cneifion Arete profile from Y Gribin.

Soloing on the East Face of Tryfan & Tryfan Fach

Bit of a late start today as I had a hospital appointment in Wrexham to attend first, but after a quick blast down the A5 I was at Ogwen by midday. The dark clouds over Snowdonia in general seemed to be disapperaring fast & the sun was blazing once again.
I headed up to Heather Terrace on Tryfan's east face, and opted for a route I have not done before, South Gully. Ashton's guide book classes this as a grade 2 or 3 scramble, depending on wether you tackle the harder sections or not. I tried to make the route as hard as possible, but to be honest it still didn't feel like a grade 3 to me. Once I reached the last obstacle (a 10m dividing rib) I decided to spice things up a little, & headed out right up the front face on central buttress. This made things more interesting and went at about Vdiff maximum.
On my way back to the car I decided on a quick blast up Crack 2 (Diff) on Tryfan Fach with the continuation up the 'upper nose' of Tryfan Fach.

Top pic: South Gully & my buttress diversion. East Face of Tryfan.
Middle Pic: My Vdiff diversion up the face of Central Buttress. Pic taken from the South Summit.
Bottom: Tryfan Fach.

A wild & windy Carneddau

I took a drive down that A55 again today despite the decidedly ominous weather forecast from the Met Office. Parked up in Gerlan and did the walk into Cwm Llafar alongside the Afon Llafar ('Black Ladders' approach). I wasn't exactly sure quite what I was planning today due to the constant sideways rain, howling gale & poor visibility across the summits, but fancied a couple of hours solitude. On reaching the impressive crag of Llech Du, I hung a right and headed high into the upper cwm. I ended up exploring some of the gullies & ledges which make up the higher ground over to the right of the Llech Du (Crib Lem) spur. It was an altogether grim day on the tops, with a wind which several times threatened to blow me back down from where I had come. Descended the Mynydd Du ridge back towards Gerlan.

Top pic: The impressive Llech Du
Bottom pic: Looking across to the Llech Du spur from the Mynydd Du descent