Well, we had a brief spell of cold weather with snow on the hills but apart from that it's been pretty mild here in Snowdonia. As much as i love getting out in winter this warmer weather has afforded me some great scrambling and climbing days over the last month or so.
I had just finished a brilliant week of rock climbing before heading out for the day with Dan, to do a long mountaineering day - with plenty of climbing, scrambling ropes etc. We lucked in with the weather and decided on a link up of routes in the Ogwen Valley. Starting on Ordinary Route (a Difficult grade climb) then continuing up Senior's Ridge Direct Scramble. The obvious route after that is the brilliant Cneifion Arete, a fantastic grade 3 scramble which is at the top of the scrambling grade. This took us up to the snow line so we put on the crampons and got the axe out to head up Y Gribin and onto Glyder Fach. A bluebird day with perfect conditions for both rock climbing and winter walking.
Last year the BMC ran a campaign to raise money to help repair some mountain footpaths around the country - #MendOurMountains. My contribution was to offer a day of instruction for climbing higher grade scrambles. A very generous donation from Richard secured this for him and his friend Glenn and we enjoyed 2 great days in the mountains. We looked at the range of climbing and rope skills needed to safely tackle the harder scrambles. Day 1 we spent on Tryfan, starting on Milestone Buttress and then onto Bastow Buttress. Day 2 we headed into Cwm Idwal and did Seniors Ridge Direct and then Cneifion Arete.
