Day One. I had a day in the Moelwynion today running a staff training day with staff from Richmond DofE and Hampton School. The weather forecast was foul but it ended up quite nice except for the wind which was gusting heavily at times. We split the teams in two with George Manley working with one half and myself working with the other half. Managed to do some micro navigation and some night navigation with a quick trip up Cnicht.
Day Two. More of the same today plus some ML ropework for George and I had an ML reassessment to carry out (Mark passed). We went on to the Rhyd Ddu side of Snowdon and did some more navigation. The weather was perfect for poor visibility navigation later on in the day with the forecasted rain and low cloud arriving around lunch time. George took my team in the afternoon to do some ML ropework whilst I took Mark away to carry out an ML reassessment which was wild, wet and windy. We all got back down to Rhyd Ddu for about 7pm and didn't surprisingly we didn't see another soul all day.
We had a very damp and VERY windy day today. Climbed Central Route (III) with Mark Daniel who had driven up from Coventry this morning (brave man).
Had to go out today just in cased this was it. The weather forecast was OK but warming up this afternoon. Reality was that it was thawing heavily by the time we arrived at the bottom of Central Route around lunch time but we waited our turn and had a slow but enjoyable ascent. From our experience today I don't think the route will be there tomorrow as it was a lot narrower than Tuesday and had been hacked about a lot from so many ascents over the last couple of weeks. Temperature here in Caernarfon at the moment is a balmy 7.5 degrees. Lets hope if gets cold again before it all disappears.
The above picture is of Mark on the first pitch of Central Route (III).
Conditions are still good today with most of the routes still in condition and quite a few people out. Although there was a fair bit of water running down the Devil's Cellar today it was still just about freezing but all in all it still made for a very enjoyable and challenging day.
The above picture is of Steve on the top pitch of the Devil's Cellar IV 5
Conditions a very good on most of the water courses in Cwm Idwal but the popular routes such as Afon Ifan (Idwal Stream), The Ramp and The Screen were like a circus. This is a shot of the first pitch of Central Route (grade III).
Had a great day in Cwm Idwal today. Climbed Afon Ifan (Idwal Stream) grade II/III with Mark in near perfect conditions and not a cloud in the sky. There was still a fair bit of water running under the ice but it didn't cause us any problems. There were a few parties up ahead of us when we got to the bottom of the route but by the time we started climbing we had the route to ourselves for the reminder of the day.
