The purpose of this blog is to report on winter climbing conditions in Snowdonia, to keep you lot who like nothing better than climbing ice, snow, frozen turf etc in ridiculously low temps informed!! As well as it being a record of some of my own winter climbing adventures. Feel free to email me any of your own conditions reports & photos you have & I will post them here. The more info on winter conditions the better! email:
andymountains@googlemail.com

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Todays conditions reports & Cneifion Arete....

Today Davey C & I decided that the Cneifion Arete might be the way to go. Looking at Idwal ice (top photo) I'm pretty sure we were right, as none of the ice routes are climbable from what we could tell.
The Cneifion Arete is one of Snowdonia's best all weather routes, providing all year round mountain fun. There was very little snow cover on the arete, and our ice axes & crampons remained on our backs all day. The main problem we encountered was slippery rock, which meant we had to be sure footed at all times.
I had been hoping to report on Cwm Cneifion, but due to very low cloud cover I have no idea how things are looking up there. However all snow we did encounter was in tip top neve condition & I would imagine that the likes of Tower Gully & Hidden Gully would provide good conditions.
Temperatures today felt very mild again. When we topped out it was raining, and back at the car at 3.45pm it was 3 degrees c.
I had heard that Eastern Gully on the Black Ladders was in great nick, but today have heard from two individuals that this is not the case.
Temperatures are due to drop as the week goes on with snow forecast for Thursday & Friday.

Pic 1: The Cneifion Arete (image courtesy of fotoLIBRA)
Pic 2: Davey coming up the 1st pitch
Pic 3: The walk off
Pic 4: Idwal today



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