I'd just finished a night shift at the hospital and usually I'd be falling asleep on my feet by 8am, but today I was as psyched as a psyched thing and wide awake as I got a lift with three friends who were winter virgins to the Ogwen Valley. We weren't entirely sure what conditions to expect and it wasn't looking good as we saw that Carnedd y Filiast was completely void of its winter attire. As Y Garn and Cwm Cneifion came in to view, we were treated to white with not much black or green showing.
We pushed on up the slush that was the Idwal path to the cwm of whose name I forget (it begins with C, probably). From there we walked up to the edge of the snow band, and found that conditions on the gully were excellent! Instead of slush and powder was a nice hard crust of ice and snow. Crampons on, a quick bite of food and a hasty gulp of water, we were away!
I blasted on ahead, finally the money I'd splurged on proper kit felt worth it. My friends on the other hand were wearing 50's walking crampons with blunt spikes, and the duct tape around them wasn't for decoration! I had to cut steps for them in the hard ice, fearing they'd slip out of their 'pons and also down the gully! As the ice was hard, I was utterly knackered halfway up. Stopped to take photos of the awesome view around me then went onto the top.
After we reunited at the top, I was glad to see that the inferior kit and endless slipping due to crampons falling off hadn't made for a bad experience. All happy we went down via Devil's Kitchen. On the descent to Llyn Y Cwn the whole mountainside was frozen solid and flat, so obviously we had to slide down! I ripped my trousers and bruised my arse going over a protruding rock and a friend twisted his ankle trying to stop. We all hobbled back to the car and home for cake and posh tea. I finally fell asleep after being awake for a good 35 hours. Actually come to think about it, did I really do any winter climbing or was I just hallucinating from lack of sleep on the drive home from work?
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