I’m trying to get into the habit of getting out into the hills every Monday for the next couple of months to keep myself current and up to date. The reasons for picking a regular day of the week is two fold. Firstly, I’m much more likely to stick to it if it becomes part of the routine. Secondly, this way I’m much more likely to experience a realistic spread of weather conditions that the UK hills can throw at us. Let’s face it, if you see nothing but cloud and rain when you peer out of the window in the morning, you’re quite likely to defer your planned walk unless there’s some other driving force behind you!

Today was exactly that sort of day. With thick dark cloud and heavy rain this morning, there wasn’t much inspiration except for the fact that that I’d promised Adam I’d pick him up. However, there was a very pleasant surprise in store for us. I was last in Snowdonia 10 days ago and, although the weather forecast hinted at the possibility of a bit of snow, I was taken aback to find snow already waiting for us.

We parked up just to the east of Llyn Ogwen and headed north up the broad shoulder to the east of Afon Lloer. We spent a fair amount of time practicing micro navigation in poor visibility due to the low cloud, but were treated to the occasional glimpse of the snow covered mountains to the south of the Ogwen Valley.

After a quick bite to eat, we continued north to a flat area about 700m to the east of Carnedd Dafydd. A quick blast to the west and back saw us take in the top before heading around to the top of Carnedd Llewelyn. With the poor visibility, the navigation was quite important to get right or else we could easily have found ourselves descending an unwanted ridge. After fighting our way to the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn, it was time for second lunch to restore our energy for the long descent.

We then followed the ridge down to the south east, which then took us past Pen yr Helgi Du. Again, this took regular checking of the map to keep precise tabs on our location and bearings in the poor visibility, as the consequences of a mistake could have lead to a very long day or even worse!

It wasn’t the kind of day I’d been expecting but it was certainly a pleasant surprise to get to spend the day in the snow. I doubt that it will stay for long as the snow line retreated some way up the mountainside during today alone, but sometimes you’ve just got to make the most of it while it’s there.