It’d been far too long since getting out to climb, having spent the last few months climbing indoors, getting through Christmas and adapting to life as a homeowner. Sitting at work watching the snow fall outside, I couldn’t help but fire off a quick email to a guide who I’d climbed with the previous Winter to work on winter skills before my trips to climb in the Atlas/Alps, to see if there was a chance of a couple of days climbing in the snow. The reply came quickly, giving a few dates in early March and reassurance that the conditions were fantastic.

On Left Hand Trinity of Snowdon (Credit: Hightrek)

A friend who I climb with indoors came too, so on the first day we spent a little time covering some basics as a refresher before tackling the right side of Tower Slabs (WI ii/iii) on Glyder Fawr, which whilst a little busy with a couple of other teams on at the same time, was great fun in fantastic conditions. I spent the climb without my camera out, simply enjoying being back on snow/ice, so I’ll perhaps do a short write up in the future.

For our second day, with a good forecast predicated, we made for Pen-y-Pass and up the Pyg track towards Snowdon, aiming to climbing one of the Trinity gullies on Snowdon’s Trinity Face (Clogwyn y Garnedd).

Y Lliwedd and Llyn Llydaw from the Pyg track

The walk in was as it is usually, with a few points where the path was covered in ice that needed a bit more concentration and care. But quite soon we were over the style at the junction for Crib Goch and following the Pyg track, traversing round to where we’d begin our ascent up Snowdon. Occasionally we’d be exposed to cold winds but overall we were particularly warm, as we walked briskly in the sun. The route we’d be taking became more apparent later on and is fairly obvious on the photograph below, with the two dots at the bottom of the shadow in the centre people on their way up the first part of the route to “The Spider” (the snowfield in the centre right).

Snowdon’s Trinity Face from the Pyg track

A short drop down from the path to a saddle (near to a small pond and one of the old copper mines found on Snowdon) allowed us time to look up the first section of the route, put on an extra layer of clothing and rope up. The slope itself was fairly easy going on not too steep snow, although my friend’s crampons kept on balling up with the snow being fairly soft which took him a little practice to spot before getting into a rhythm. A short steeper section of more firm snow and we’d reached the first snowfield (“The Spider”) and looked up the gully directly to our left, Left-hand Trinity (WI i/ii).

Climbing up to “The Spider”

Ian lead the route as he’d done the day previously, with Kyle and me following. Whilst the snow was fairly steep it wasn’t difficult making our way up, although Ian did point out that the route offered little in the way of good protection. I lose count of the pitches but it was somewhere between 3-4 before we emerged from the gully and then another 2 easier pitches saw us up directly onto the summit, with Ian securing the final anchor around the trig point itself, whilst a couple of onlookers watched with a little disbelief that we were appearing from over the edge of the face.

One of the final pitches of the climb

The climb whilst not technically difficult or demanding is one of the most enjoyable ascents I’ve ever made. Climbing up to the very top of Snowdon, a mountain I’ve enjoyed many days on, was really special. That the clouds soon dropped to give us brief views across North Wales was the icing on the cake. The two days reminded me of all that I loved about climbing in Winter conditions and excited me at all the prospects for a lot more of the same next Winter.

All photos from the trip can be found in my Flickr album of Snowdonia 2010 winter climbs and also on our guide’s Flickr account.

A big thank you to our guide Ian at Hightrek, who’s based in Snowdonia and helped pick/lead us on some cracking rotues, if there was something you’d like to work on/towards then I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.

Finally, there’s a Wiki of Welsh winter climbs with further routes being put together now if you’re interested in what else is possible during the colder months. Also worth knowing about is the Cicerone Welsh Winter Climbs guide, Ian referred to as we climbed that I’ve now picked up a copy of which even though a little old is a good reference for most routes.