Tuesday 31st Jan
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Idwal panorama about 9.30am Tues 31st Jan 2012
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| Grrrr 1 |
Finally some snow came to North Wales at the end of January. Sunday 29th was pretty awful up there but the Monday looked good on the Oggie web cam. Time to make a move, an early start on Tuesday, after grabbing some breky Deej and I headed up towards the Y Garn. The previous couple of nights had been quite cold and most of the ground just above Ogwen was frozen. Only the most stubbornly boggy areas held a surprise for idle feet. We headed up the main path to the NE ridge, the snow was powdery and had drifted to about 2 or 3 ft in places making progress towards Llyn Clyd slower than normal. After a few disappearing acts we decided rather than struggling on round the back of the lake we would head up from where we were and join Banana Gully about half way. Of all the glorious sunny days of last week, I had to pick the Tuesday, no.... I did have to pick it as it was the least busy day at work. Tuesday was getting cloudier, moodier & broodier, the visibility was poor but Banana Gully was a reasonably straightforward Grade 1 route so we carried on. Keep heading left until you hit a band of rock... plod, plod then head up.
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| Grrr 2 |
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Deej doing his best Simpson
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Top of Easy Gully
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The snow had covered just about everything so features were pretty much non existent. We ended up coming out just to the right of the route. The spindrift was now whipping up for a real face stinger, so we battened down before topping out. With not unfamiliar White out conditions, and the edge of the ridge barely visible we headed for the summit and a brew. Not bad, a nice day when the clouds cleared. With rogue ice crystals starting to find there way up your sleeves it was back down towards Foel Goch to have a look at Easy Gully, another pleasant Grade 1. Although its a dam shame to break its lines, there is something compelling about a virgin cornice, it's the frozen seventh wave. Having taken days to build, there you go we've trashed it in ten minutes:(
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