Report from Matt Cooke

Matt Cooke from North East Wales Mountaineering Club emailed me yesterday with info regarding his day (Sat) in Upper Cwm Glas area where he & his mate soloed The Ramp & Sinister Gully on Clogwyn y Ddysgl:

'Hi Andy,
Conditions were shite! Thin (1/2 inch) crust over 6inches of grouple, turf not frozen either, and the small amounts of ice were very poorly bonded to the rock.
It was also surprisingly warm, even at the summit. Topping out you get the most amazing view across the whole of the trinity faces and the down into the cwm below, and the snow just made it beautiful!
Weather was stunning too, so calm, no wind whatsoever, clear enough to make out the isle of man, as well as seeing right across the clwydians, and across to cadir idris from the top.'
(Photos below from Matt)
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However bear in mind that was Saturday, and there has been more snow since. Conditions are looking hopeful for this week, with some freeze-thaw cycles there may be good climbing to be had.

Are we in for a good spell?

Snow in the mountains with more forecast, along with some very low temps on their way. Is this the start of a period of winter climbing activity in N.Wales? Lets hope so.
More info to follow...

Cornice alert on Parsley Fern!

Spotted this awesome amount of snow at the top of Parsley Fern gully yesterday!!

Still nothing

No snow or ice & no prospects of any anytime soon. Snowdonia seems to have forgotten we are in mid-winter I'm afraid.

Y Garn

Going winter climbing has become a bit of a tradition on Christmas Eve the last few years, so despite the lack of winter conditions around at the moment I thought I would at least go for a walk this morning. There is still some snow high up, particulary on NE faces. I had a wander up to Cwm Clyd as this is where the most snow cover appeared to be to have a look if any of the easy gullies (A,B or C) were vaguely anything like in condition (I was 99% sure they wouldn't be) I did go up A Gully which was the only one which had snow cover (albiet a thin strip!) from bottom to top, but snow conditions were mainly crappy. Better from around 800m or so, but not worth it really. No crampons were worn & I used one axe as a walking aid before anyone moans at me about turf damage! :-)

So here's hoping the new year will bring some freezing weather & snow!
Have a very Merry Christmas.

Y Gribin & Cwm Cneifion

Headed out early this morning down to Ogwen. When I pulled up in the car park at 6.30am it was 11 degrees which did not bode well. Really low cloud cover (from Ogwen cottage!) and drizzle. I headed up Y Gribin ridge with Holly the Collie, snow cover started from the 'football pitch' area but was wet & sporadic. I thought that higher up on the ridge the snow would be more consolidated but was wrong, snow was wet, turf was unfrozen & any ice whch had been forming was melting fast. Even on the Glyder Plateau the ground was saturated & very little snow.
Looks like winter has deserted us now here in N.Wales with no forecasts to suggest things will change anytime soon I'm afraid.

Pic 1: Clogwyn Du & Easy Gully area stripped bare
Pic 2: Tower Gully/slabs area same story
Pic 3: Holly the Collie at least had fun in the snow

To blog or not to blog...

....that has been the question for me the last couple of weeks.
And after several emails from winter enthusiasts requesting info on conditions & asking if I was going to blog, I have decided to blog!

So winter has kind of kicked off in the mountains of Snowdonia, then seems to be fizzling out again as I type. Last weekend saw lots of ascents of easy mixed routes/ridges etc & a few gullies being done, and a few hard 'itchy & scratchy' mixed lines. There is still a decent amount of snow around higher up, but its quite warm up there just now & a freeze is needed to consolidate but is not forecast unfortunately.

As usual keep your eye on the forecasts, MWIS, Met Office, Snowforecast.com etc & the conditions blogs like:

Mark 'Baggy' Richards
Rob Johnson MIC - www.expeditionguide.com
Huw Gilbert Mountaineering

Also this years Snowdonia Conditions thread on UKC is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

And if high grade 'itchy & scratchy' madness is your thing:
Dave Garry's blog
Greg Boswell's blog
plus many more along those lines if you dig around.

Please feel free to email me at any conditions reports you have (with pics if possible) & I promise to include them on this blog.

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Right so its 4.42am and I have a free morning, so I'm off to do the 130 mile round trip down to Ogwen. Will post back on here tonight with conditions reports (read wet melting snow & no ice I suspect but hey ho)

Close

Its getting closer folks, not long now. Talk on UKC is all about winter.
Watch this space.......

See you next winter

I won't be posting again on here until next winter. I started this as a winter climbing blog & that is how I'm going to keep it.

Til Nov/Dec then.........

Still not climbing, but having a great 'summer' day in the mountains

I am still not able to climb due to a shoulder injury, but there is still plenty of great times to be had on foot in the mountains. Today Davey & I headed into the Carneddau for a mountain walk comprising of Pen yr Ole Wen 978 m (3,209 ft), Carnedd Daffyd 1,045 m (3,428 ft) and Carnedd Llewellyn 1,064 m (3,491 ft).
I was in shorts & t-shirt all day & managed to get sunburnt in MARCH!!
A thoroughly enjoyable day. Still can't wait to get climbing again though.

Walking in the Clwyds

I have a physio assessment on my constantly dislocating right shoulder this afternoon, but managed to grab a couple of hours walking up in the Clwyds this morning. Couldn't resist due to the gorgeous early spring weather we are having.
Right, off to the hospital now... see if they'll let me go climbing on Monday.

'Conquering Hero'

Today I have been out riding in the Llantysilio Mountains near Llangollen. I decided to do the 'Conquering Hero' ride as described in NE Wales Bikefax guidebook. The ride starts from the 14th century Welsh drover's watering hole 'The Sun Inn' and in part follows ancient drover's routes through the hills.
It is only 13.7km long but has a respectable height gain of over 600m. To be honest I found this route a real slog, one of those rides which only ever seems to go uphill and never down! Personally I think it would be better done in reverse.

Mountain bike heaven

Back biking on the Clwydian range today (friday). A stunning spring day & 23km covered on dryish singletrack & fireroads.
Time to venture a bit further afield next week methinks though.

The Beast of Cilcain

Todays plan was to head down to the Berwyn Mountains with the bike to do longer variation of 'The Wayfarer' route. However having had a heavy cold for the last few days I decided against the 40km+ & approx 1200om height gain of that plan, and instead chucked the bike on the car & headed towards the Clwyds to do a quick lap of 'The Beast of Cilcain' which is a great fun blast. Today it was very very muddy which resulted in me having an 'over the bars' experience near the stream crossing! Doh.

MTBing in the Moel Famau area

Today (Mon) I had a good couple of hours riding on & around Moel Famau. It felt good to be back on the singletrack up there which I know very well. The problem with the Clwydian Range & Moel Famau in particular is legal access to riding. Many of the footpaths & tracks are designated no go areas for MTBs, and in a lot of instances that makes sense. However with a bit of discretion & knowledge of the local hills there is plenty of fun to be had. All legally of course! ;-)