Ten days into the big freeze, today was my first opportunity to get into the mountains for a personal day in the snow. Not living right next to the North Wales mountains can make it awkward in predicting exactly what the conditions are going to be like. The weather forecast is certainly a help, in terms of how things will develop during the day, but it doesn’t give you any idea about how much snow is already around, and what condition it’s in.
Consequently, I headed along the A5 trying to assess the situation on the way. Should I just go for a mountain walk or should I have a crack at some grade 1 gullies. I opted to head for Ogwen Cottage to keep my options open. From there, I could either head onto the Carneddau or the Glyders and I was aware of a number of appropriate gullies in the Cwm Idwall area. It seems that a lot of people had the same thoughts as, when I arrived at Ogwen Cottage, there were vehicles parked everywhere and hoards of people getting kitted up.
I actually bumped into Howard Crompton, a guy that I’ve worked with on a number of occasions before, who was out for a day with a couple of work colleagues. I tagged along with them for the walk into Cwm Idwal, giving me a chance to catch up with Howard, before heading off on my own into Cwm Clyd which seemed to be holding quite a lot of snow. Llyn Idwal itself was frozen right over, as you can see from the photo, and created quite a spooky feel combined with the early morning light as the sun struggled to get high enough to shine directly into the cwm. Apparently, people were ice skating on it last week – very brave!
Having climbed up into Cwn Clyd, a quick look at the guide book confirmed that I had made the right decision to head for the gullies as they were clearly holding a lot of snow in this area. I opted to head up ‘A Gulley’ which looks like a long ramp leading diagonally up and left from the backwall. Over 200m long, this became quite an effort as the snow turned out to be very powdery. Due to the consistently sub zero temperatures, the snow had not really consolidated making progress slow and physically draining. The snow was mid thigh deep, making it quite an effort to get your foot out of a 3 foot deep ‘footprint’, only to place it slightly higher up the slope and what it sink back down to the level it was at to start with – very frustrating!
After a lot of effort, I finally made it to the top and broke out into the sunshine with fantastic panoramic views which I enjoyed as I pushed on to the actual summit of Y Garn. I quick bite to eat and a brief rest, saw me ready for the next stage of my day which was to continue past the summit and drop down ‘Banana Gully’ which I had located earlier from the base of Cwn Clyd. In descent, the soft loose snow wasn’t such a problem. It wasn’t always possible to get a solid foot hold, but I didn’t mind sinking down too such when that was the direction I wanted to go.
Having got back to the base of Cwm Clyd, I worked my way across to the North East ridge of Y Garn and started to head back uphill. I was aware of two more gullies the other side of the ridge in Cwm Cywion but, being much shorter, they were going to start higher up. Not surprisingly, I got some very strange looks from people that had seen me heading up towards the top earlier and, now that they were on their way down, I was going up again! As I hit the North East ridge, I met two guys that were making steady progress and decided to walk with them for a short while. During the conversation, it transpired that they were from Wolverhampton and were involved in youth work. It didn’t take long to work out that they knew and worked with my brother-in-law!
Having parted ways, I traversed across the back wall of Cwn Cywion in search of my gullies which I found without mishap. Firstly, I past below ‘Summit Gully’, making a mental note that there was quite a substantial cornice at the top that I would have to negotiate later, and continued across to ‘Spurious Gully’. I have no idea why it’s gained this name, as it proved to be quite a challenge. It was probably the steepest of my gullies for the day and hardest to make progress. At one point, I seriously thought that I would have to give up as all my efforts were getting me nowhere. However, my persistence paid off in the end, although the legs were pretty drained from the effort.
Having located ‘Summit Gully’ from below, it was easy to recognise and, having assessed the cornice at the top, I chose to start well out to the left and work my way into the main part of the gully as I descended. Surprising, this was the most solid snow I came across all day which gave more confidence as I worked my way down backwards.
With 4 gullies ticked off, and rather tired legs to show for it, it was time to call it a day and head back to civilisation. It was certainly a valuable day and gave some wonderful views, but the soft snow made it hard work. Hopefully, the warmer weather due at the end of the week, followed by more freezing conditions expected next week, will help it all consolidate into a more stable snow pack.
