Andy Mountains

Trinity Face & Cwm Cneifion report

2012-02-09T11:23:00.000Z

I was out yesterday in beautiful sunshine on Snowdon. Plenty of people out on the Pyg Track which is extremely treacherous the higher you go with compacted snow & ice.
I went onto the Trinity Face where low down the snow was great neve, but the higher on the face I went the poorer snow conditions were. Did Left Hand Trinity, which began very promisingly with good ice & fairly solid snow, but as you got higher, the poorer it became. A stunning day though, which felt very warm in the sun.
Sorry no photos as I forgot to put the battery back in my camera after charging it!

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My mate Carl was today out in Cwm Cneifion and emailed me the following info & pics:

'Hey Andy,
Pictures as promised. Tower Slabs were nice on the first pitch, great chewy ice. Then good neve until about two thirds the way up, then crust ontop sugary snow. Dropped down Easy gully which is stepped but solid. Up Hidden Gully, good snow, stepped, but good fun. Left Hand looked like it might go but a team did back off it. Ice in the Kitchen but nothing looked climbable. Beautiful, still, sunny day.
Cheers,
Carl'

Keeping up with current climbing conditions

2012-02-05T11:31:00.000Z

I'm a bit out the loop at the moment but am aware that plenty of routes have been climbed over the last couple of days despite thin conditions which is great news.
Had this email from James Kelly last night:

'Hi Andy

Two of my climbing partners Andy Wilson and Simon Logan were on Idwall stream today said it was a bit thin, very wet all day most of the other routes looked thin for example the ramp. Hope this helps anyone heading down.

Regards
James Kelly'
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One of the best ways to keep up to date is the UKC Snowdonia Conditions thread which is updated daily with on the ground reports.
Also the UKC Winter Conditions logbook page to see what winter routes climbers have added to their logbooks.

If anyone has any reports later today or tomorrow please could you email me as I'm looking to head out myself over the next couple of days and would be grateful to know whats what.

Cwm Cneifion & Idwal

2012-02-03T11:56:00.000Z

I managed to get a free afternoon yesterday (Thurs) & was at Ogwen carpark for 1.30pm. My objective was to head up into Cwm Cneifion to have a look at Tower Slabs, Tower Gully & Hidden Gully, although I was aware that reports were saying that snow was still unconsolidated due to continued cold temps & no freese/thaw conditions. When I got into the lower cwm it was fairly apparent that the snow was not going to be in good condition in the higher gullies, & I suspected Tower Slabs would be very poor. So opting for Senior's Ridge instead I headed up in poor snow which was fairly hard going at times. Crampons were essential due to sections of ice, and one axe was sufficient. When high up on the ridge I could see across the cwm & although there is some ice on the lower section of Tower Slabs, it has not yet formed properly. I came back down via the Devil's Kitchen path which was very icy, and had a look at the Idwal ice routes. I am aware that there was a couple of ascents of The Ramp & Idwal Stream yesterday, but from what I saw these are still a fair way off being 'in' condition. The Screen looked at best 50% formed, as did The Ramp & South Gully. I would say that Idwal Stream looked closest to being 'in'. Bear in mind that this was on Thursday & ice should be building daily.
It was a beautiful day to be out, and I am just disappointed it is my only oppurtunity to do so until at least next week.

Report from Matt Cooke

2012-01-30T10:49:00.001Z

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?

2012-01-29T09:41:00.000Z

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!

2012-01-14T17:12:00.000Z

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

Still nothing

2012-01-06T12:17:00.000Z

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

2011-12-24T20:31:00.002Z

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

2011-12-21T20:04:00.000Z

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...

2011-12-21T04:14:00.007Z

....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

2011-10-05T23:38:00.000+01:00

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

See you next winter

2011-04-02T20:10:00.000+01:00

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

2011-03-28T21:43:00.002+01:00

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

2011-03-25T15:05:00.000Z

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'

2011-03-21T14:44:00.004Z

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

2011-03-18T13:15:00.006Z

Clwyds ride 1

Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in Clwyd, United Kingdom

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

2011-03-16T15:29:00.001Z

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

2011-03-14T15:03:00.002Z

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! ;-)

Update

2011-03-09T10:49:00.000Z

Still nothing wintery going on in Snowdonia. There is a small amount of snow forecast over the weekend along with some very low temps on high ground, but nothing to get too excited about.
Due to a shoulder injury I am just concentrating on MTBing & some mountain walking for the time being, in the hope that my shoulder will improve enough for a trip to Scotland in April for some winter climbing.

Scrambling on Tryfan & Tryfan Fach

2011-02-19T08:37:00.002Z

Yesterday (friday) I was out on the North Ridge of Tryfan scrambling in the cloud! The great thing about this route is you can pick your lines anywhere between scrambling grades 1-3 which I did. Over the years I must have been up here 25 plus times & never once done it by the same route. Always good fun. It was pretty claggy today & the cloud base was around the 500-600m mark. Sporadic snow cover from around 800m but not neve, just soft melting stuff. No ice anywhere to be seen. Only came across 2 other people on the whole mountain which is very rare for Tryfan.
On the way back to the car I stopped to solo a couple of routes on Tryfan Fach which is always fun in big muddy boots!

Winter proper is still unfortunately eluding us here in N.Wales.

Stunning weather on the Carneddau

2011-02-08T20:45:00.002Z

Today was a stunning day on the Carneddau. I got some fantastic photos and had a good few hours walking in the mountains & practising navigation.
Conditions were really beautiful. Ground is only frozen on the summits.
There are still no winter climbing routes anywhere near in condition.
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Pic 1: Stunning views looking SW from Pen Yr Ole Wen summit
Pic 2: Black Ladders not in condition

James Kelly reports on Idwal - Sun 29th Jan

2011-01-29T20:56:00.001Z

Had the following email from James late this afternoon:

Hi Andy,
We (James and Andy) decided to head up to idwal stream today after yesterdays report of Ice on the route, got on the route at 7.30am conditions climable although not a lot of opportunity to place ice screws.

Another 3 teams on the route behind us, the whole route could do with a bit more of a freeze which should happen over the next few days.

1 team of 3 on the ramp again looked a bit thin but claimable, Bottom of South Gully looks claimable again second pitch looks very thin hope this helps anyone heading to the area.

Regards
James Kelly

Idwal Stream & Oblique Gully plus general conditions report

2011-01-28T21:09:00.001Z

Having (obsessively) watched the forecasts for the last few days I decided that today might be a good day to head out & see what was frozen. My initial objectives for the day were 2 gully lines high on Glyder Fawr: High Pasture & Oblique Gully.
I had hoped that Introductory Gully up the right hand side of Idwal Slabs might be in condition, but it wasn't. However the closer I got to Idwal Stream the more climbeable it looked. And on close inspection it certainly was good to go. Plenty of fat ice, although tonnes of water also. I climbed the first 3 or so pitches until it levels out a bit. Well worthwhile & I imagine it will see plenty of ascents this weekend, although wether it will take decent ice screw placements is debateable!
I then traversed across left onto the flanks of Glyder Fawr to have a look at High Pasture. The turf on High Pasture was certainly rock hard, but the lack of any snow or ice whatsoever did not inspire me & I decided not to bother. Also from this point on the crag I could see some tempting looking ice over to the left in Oblique Gully, so that is where I headed. Now the new guidebook gives Oblique Gully a grade of II 2/3 although a sentence in the intro to Glyder Fawr does say something like 'grades could be higher in lean conditions'. Well never a truer sentence was written as it turns out!
Today Oblique Gully was a mix of ice smeared rock, rock hard turf & vegetation, and bare rock. I encountered the first major obstacle early on, it was a 9 foot high cave with blank ice smeared walls on either side. In fatter conditions this must bank out with snow, and the ice must fatten up to enable climbing, but in todays conditions it would have been more like grade V/VI terrain and I refrained. The only way up was to step out left, onto the exposed buttress which is made up of ice smeared slabe & frozen turf. In my estimation this went at around III/IV. Once back in the gully (which was no mean feat!) it was back to approx grade III terrain. Now the new guide says that when the gully splite into two, it is best to take the right hand option, which takes you up to a chimney which is 'sporty' in lean conditions. This was true. It certainly was sporty! In todays conditions I would certainly have to put Oblique Gully at the upper end of grade III, & more realistically III/IV. DO NOT GO THERE IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GRADE II ROUTE AT THE MOMENT!

From what I saw today although the other Idwal ice routes are starting to form none looked complete. Also looking accross to Y Garn, there are no complete gully lines in any way, just a dusting of fresh snow. Also Cwm Cneifion is much the same story with Easy Route on the headwall (& possibly Corner Gully I/II) being the only snow lines. Tower Slabs has not formed.
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Pic 1: Idwal this morning
Pic 2: A pretty bare Y Garn
Pic 3: An enticing looking Idwal Stream
Pic 4: Idwal Stream 1st pitch
Pic 5: Idwal Stream 2nd pitch
Pic 6: Idwal Stream 3rd pitch
Pic 7: Base of Oblique Gully
Pic 8: The 'impassable cave'!
Pic 9: Higher up in the gully
Pic 10: A bare looking Cwm Cneifion

Cwm Glas gullies & Trinity Face

2011-01-18T20:27:00.002Z

I have had quite a few emails in the last week & noticed a few questions on UKC regarding any snow which may be left in the higher gullies. So today I decided to head down the A55 and have a wee look. The forecast for the day according to MWIS, MetOffice, Snowforecast.com & MetCheck ALL stated very clearly that today would be a day with fantastic visibility, 90% chance of cloud free summits, sunny & clear skies. That sounded too good to miss, so off I went heading up Cwm Glas Ridge which leads right to the summit of Carnedd Ugain. My plan was to get some great photos of Cwm Glas area gullies & the Trinity Face to see how much if any snow was left in the popular gully climbs. BUT as you will see from the pics below this was not to be, due to thick cloud cover from around the 700m mark. So absolutely no stunning views as promised! However I can report that the ground is frozen solid from around the 800-850 mark, but the gullies are stripped clean. From the top of Cwm Glas Ridge I could see (now & again when vis was more than 10m!!) that all snow is gone from Cwm Glas, with only the odd patch left where cornices have been at the top of Parsley Fern & adjacent gullies. Nothing else. It is all gone. There was no snow at all on top of Carnedd Ugain, but it was very cold with rock hard ground. As far as the Trinity Face goes, again I couldn't get a photo of any use (see below), but the same story seemed to be true from the odd bit I could make out.
So all round bad news regarding any hopes you may have had of the nest few cold days refreezing remaing snow, as it has all gone. It is going to take a big dump of snow & a freeze/thaw cycle, which unfortunately is not forecast for at least the next week or so.
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Pic 1: A great view of Cwm Glas (!!)
Pic 2: Another great viw, this time of the Trinity Face (!!)
Pic 3: Summit Carnedd Ugain

No news for you

2011-01-15T19:26:00.001Z

Sorry all, but no news whatsoever for you at the moment due to the fact that nobody including myself is going out. It has rained most of the week here in N.Wales with warm temps of up to 12c. No real cold weather or snow forecast for the next few days from what I can see. Possibility of -1 to -3 high up from monday night for a couple of days, but its not looking good.
The only consolation is that Scotland is crap at the moment too, so no need to be jealous!
I will be out climbing in Snowdonia on monday & will post on here what I find regarding remaining snow in gullies etc.. but don't hold your breath for good news.