Sunday on The Glyders

I was out Sunday on The Glyders for the morning. Headed up the Gribin Ridge which provided some snowy/icy entertainmnt, but not a lot. Just enough for it to feel a bit like winter but not really enough for an axe or crampons. The Glyder plateau itself was completely white and frozen so I thought I would have a look at dropping down Easy Gully at the head of Cwm Cneifion and doing Hidden Gully, the short but sweet grade II (or is it I/II I can't remember?) gully to the left of Clogwyn Du. But there wasn't much snow on Easy Gully and the ground was soft so I popped around the corner to peek into the top of Hidden Gully where it was the same story. More snow but unconsolidated on top of very soft ground. I must admit I was still tempted to do it anyway in a spirit of 'well I'm here anyway so might as well' but I was a good winter bunny and acted in a responsible and ethical manner and refrained. Plus it would have been utter crap!
I was going to upload some pics but can't really be bothered as the temps are due to rise over the next few days so its all irrelevant. The one pic is top of the Gribin.
A couple of different lots of friends were out sat and sun in Cwm Lloer and upper Cwm Glas areas in the vain hope of finding something worth plodding up, but I gather it was the same story.
What we really need after this thaw is a good spell of freezing cold weather to get the ground good and hard before any snows arrive. We will see.....

Hello again

So here we are again. The beginning of Welsh winter! I am personally very excited to be back after suffering some significant health problems this last 12 to 18 months.
Once again this winter I will posting up to date ground conditions, whats 'in' (theoretically!) and whats not. Well wherever the info is available of course. And that's where you lot come in, and I know there are a lot of you out there, a damn site more than I would ever have expected to be reading this! I live 60 miles away from the Snowdonia mountains so cannot be there as much as I would like, so what we need is all you lot who read this blog to email me at andymountains@googlemail.com with your own conditions reports with or without photos, just email me your own conditions reports and I PROMISE to include them on this blog straight away. This will assist you, me and everyone to make sensible and safe decisions what to climb and what not to climb.

Sorted! So now onto the conditions out there now. I went out on Wednesday with the intention of an early winter crossing of Crib Goch but the forecasted 70mph put me off, and instead I went winter walking in the Carneddau. Snow level then was around the 800m mark, but it was only superficial. Apart from on the summit plateaus the ground is not (sorry was not on Wed) frozen. I had a poke around the top of the easy gully lines which come up from Cwm Lloer (Broad Gully, Hourglass Gully etc) below Pen yr Ole Wen and again it looked pretty, but soggy turf covered in 2 inches of wet snow is not something to get excited about. It was forecast to snow more on Wed but when I left Ogwen at 3.45pm it had not arrived.
I'm sure that the likes of Crib Goch would be fun and maybe somewhat icy across the ridge right now, but hardly what you would call winter conditions, but I guess if you are desperate to kick start your winter it would be better than nothing.
As for me I will be heading back down again early on Sunday morning, not because I expect winter to have suddenly arrived, but because I love them there mountains whatever the weather!

And don't forget as the winter season progresses, share your findings!!

Here's to a severe winter!

Andy