Searching for snow in Snowdonia

At the weekend I went to Snowdonia is search of something to climb. We made good time on the journey up so were able stop off in time for last orders at the Ty Gwyn Inn. As Sharp's are now owned by Molson Coors I had what was to be my last pint of Sharp's Doom Bar whilst it was a craft beer. It was pleasant enough but as of yesterday everything from Sharp's is no longer craft beer so I will never drink it again. Or something.

We were staying in Llanberis pass, though to climbers it is simply known as 'the pass'. It's home to some of the most striking and famous climbs in Britain, such as Cenotaph Corner. Not that we climbed anything there. There wasn't much snow and having large mountains on either side it dosen't lend itself having sun warmed rock in January.

Having safely got to the hut where we were staying there was time to a night cap so I had a bottle of my very own Black Syrup of Death.



It's an oak aged stout that came in at 12.5% ABV and it certainly did the trick.

We headed up to Cwm Idwal in the morning, looking for something frozen, and after much trekking managed to heroically climb a grade I snow plod called Easy Gully.



Flushed with success the beers (again made by my own fair hands) went down easily that night.

The next day we decided not to bother with any of the winter stuff so headed to Tremadog, a place know to escape the worst of the weather in Wales all year round.

It was still freezing though so we warmed up on a climb at the modest grade of V.diff called Hail bebe. By the time we reached the top it was almost feeling warm to we decided fit in another climb by going to the smaller crag on the upper tier, where I lead something at the almost respectable grade of Very Severe.



I was knackered by this point and I thought a few beers to unwind would see me right before an early start home for a quite Sunday.

But it was not to be. A frozen stream had been spotted so I was press ganged into more heroism the next day to climb Idwal stream (grade II)




The climbing was easy but the rope got wet and then froze which made it hard work. We had a five hour journey home after this which I could have done without, but it was good to get back to the lovely Lisa who had dinner and beer waiting for me. Hurrah for Lisa!