More snow than we ever expected!

Saturday 7 February 2009
I had six days of walking through the snow to work between Halesowen and Harborne but there was no snow in Aberystwyth or along he Cardigan Bay coast as Jon and I drove to climb Cadair Idris in, we hoped, snow. We felt there was not enough, so we drove further inland to Dinas Mawddwy and up the narrow mountain road for six miles to the sharp corner where we parked to climb Aran Fawddwy. Earlier, back in the Jon's study bedroom, I had adjusted my ancient but adequate Salewa crampons to fit Jon's size 11 boots. I was keen to try out my new winter mountaineering boots with their matching crampons. They have a metal tongue that slots into the groove in the boot toe.

We soon met another walker on the track that goes up the valley side. He also had Grivel crampons, I immediately noticed, but of an older design. I next noticed Fergus, the small Scots terrier with his short and very hairy legs but all four were so thickly balled up with snow that he was struggling. The pair were on their way down because of Fergus. Fergus and master were from west London and were staying at the Red Lion. I mentioned we hoped to have our evening meal there. As we left the track, we got into deep soft snow. Only then, did I realise that I had not thought of bringing the snow gaiters.

Jon soon offered to take my heavier, green rucsac with the two pairs of crampons and I took his small black day sac with the ice axe. We soon reached the post and rail fence that we followed to the double summit of Foel Hafod-fynydd 689 m. On the way, Jon sank into snow up to his thigh. When I came up to it, we saw that it was a mass of rolled up rusty wire fencing that was fun jumping up and down on it to spring up onto the grass step; except, I didn't make it! On this hill, we heard the sound of the NW wind howling round our ears. I filmed Jon running and jumping down the slope into deep snow on his way to shoot the circular patterns on the semi frozen llyn at the foot of the E face of Fawddwy. Crampons were used to get up the long, broad SE shoulder to the main ridge between Fawddwy and Benllyn and the shoulder summit at 872 m. By now, we were in cloud but only more spindrift. The patches of icy snow near the top could have been avoided but we tried out the sharp crampons points that held beautifully in the ice.

We made our way south on the main ridge through the cloud and dusk. We stopped to get out our head torches. Soon, Jon shouted to me through the murk, "We're going down hill. Is that right?" "It's all right; we lose 30 m before climbing again", I shouted back.

The steeper N ridge took us, in the gathering gloom, to the cloud shrouded, ice and snow encrusted trig point at 905 m. Jon took two self portraits of the pair of us, despite the strong wind and the dark. The climb had taken over four hours to do less than four miles (6K). We completed the circuit with our new head torches and reckoned we were real mountaineers in the snow and climbing in the light of them; found snow to the top of the fence in one place; and, another stretch of fencing that Jon described as looking like a waffle, with the horizontal rime more on the windward side of the wire.

We came down before the 632 m spot height when passing it makes the descent easier; crossed the stream that flows from the large llyn we looked at earlier in the day; and, found the one man and his dog, Fergus in the bar of the Red Lion in front of the roaring log fire. Jon had lasagne and I had broccoli and cheese bake for the second time running. It was a great walk made all the more enjoyable and safer with Jon's presence. We were out for nearly seven hours in the most glorious of winter conditions.