I tried out my hill walk last week that I had recommended to Weller/Willson/Verduyns who like a proper walk up, over and down a hill or two. I had never done the full length, so thought I should check it.
All went well to begin with. Problems came when I got up over the snow line and found that it was soft and cloying. There was so much and it was too deep and sugary that I thought of turning back. My left knee was also playing up. I certainly wished that I had snow shoes. This was last Wednesday 23 Nov, two days after the very wet and windy day. The NE wind had deposited more on the western dip slope that I was toiling up so thankfully, once I got onto the 800 m ridge the snow was less. I found the trig point in front of me and turned right to begin what turned out to be a much longer and harder run for home than I thought it would be. The wide gentle ridge from Moel Sych looked so different in snow and cloud and it was the snow covering the feint path that turned it into a sting, a slog and slow going stumbling along . At one point, I fell into a bog with the snow up to the top of my right leg and my foot in cold, wet, peaty water. I got back to the car, after 7 hours, just before I definitely did need to dig out my Petzl but just avoided doing so. Dry day but cloudy. Cloud base 750 m. No-one else seen.
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