Ski Mountaineering in Wales

Wow. Conditions and timings all came together at the last minute to give one of the greatest days out in winter that I've ever had at home, here in North Wales. I've always fancied skiing right across the top of the Carneddau range and today I got my chance to do it. Not only that though; as well as ascending multiple summits and doing plenty of skiing, I also managed to climb two big gullies and visit a area that I'd never even been in before! 

To get to the snow, I had to carry the skis up to the snow line, which thankfully passed quickly. Then it was skis and skins on (and a lighter rucksack!) as I carried on ascending.

The bowl of Cwm Lloer looked great in the morning light and being on skis, meant that I wasn't sinking in to the soft snow. I passed a couple of climbers who were struggling to get to a climb, knee deep in heavy snow and did feel a little bad as I skimmed past!

I swapped skis for crampons and axes at the base of 'Broad Gully' (Gd I***) and enjoyed the slightly harder snow of the climb which took me up into the sunlight on Pen yr Ole Wen.. It's the central gully in this photo, which I took later.

This is the view looking down the gully from half way up!

Then on top!

I traversed across the top of the cwm and up and over Daffydd and Llewellyn. The snow features were beautiful. There was not a breath of wind and I stopped often to admire the weird 'sastrugi' formations that a previous wind had created.

I was alone for most of the day, but quite often following fox footprints in the snow. This photo is currently playing tricks with my eyes, as the prints are indented, but seem to look raised in the photo!?!

I took a break on Carnedd Llewellyn for some much needed peanut butter sandwiches. I could have stayed there all day!

But I really wanted to explore in to Cwm Buchan and Cwm Caseg. This view of Yr Elen had me totally inspired to continue further! I ended up climbing the right hand ridge, skiing the main face and then climbing out of 'Elen Gully' (Gd I/II), just left of the summit.

From just below Foel Grach, it was a great ski into Cwm Buchan; wide open slopes of untouched snow! Then across the river and another uphill skin to the ridge line. The heat from the sun just before I skied into Cwm Caseg was torturous. It was like a furnace, with sunlight reflecting off the snow. I was relieved to ski into the shade at the back of the Cwm, where the snow was still icy and hard and the temperatures much cooler. So cold in fact, I needed to use my harchisen on my skis to grip into the hard snow. 

Once it started to get too steep for skis, I had to swap kit again for crampons and ice axes. The remoteness started to spook me a little as I prepared to climb the gully. I also fumbled my suncream and it shot off down the snow slope never to be seen again. It was a reminder that I still needed to concentrate - (at this point I didn't even know if the gully had ever been climbed!).

The climb was great and the snow just hard enough to kick good steps in. I was definitely slowing down by now though!

Thankfully there were no hidden obstacles and I was soon up near the summit of Yr Elen and back in the sunshine!

And feeling elated! The slope in the distance was the one I skied into the valley!

Then, without any real warning, a big bank of cloud rolled in and viability dropped down to about 10 meters! Not good! Keeping my crampons on, I followed the ridge of Yr Elen, back to towards Llewellyn. I stopped for some more food below the summit and as luck would have it, the clouds all dropped into the valley and I was back in the sunshine! 

In the mist, I'd climbed higher than I'd needed to, but this meant that I had a great bit of downhill skiing to enjoy, before the traverse across the top of the Black Ladder and then finally down into Cwm Lloer, where the lake was like a mirror. On the other side of the valley, Tryfan looked tiny compared to the other mountains. Eventually, I staggered back down the to van some eight hours after setting off feeling totally shattered and elated in equal measure. After such a wild and remote day, it seemed unbelievable that the drive back to The Cottage took less that fifteen minutes!