Arctic Explorers

Went for an exploratory hike in the Carneddau today. It's still cold and the ground was frozen rock hard. It's not been enough for the streams to properly freeze, but there are icicles everywhere.

We'd tentatively set our sights on an ascent of Carnedd Llewellyn, but very cold temperatures and low clouds changed our mind up at the Reservoir, where we found conditions good for practicing winter navigation. It can be pretty disorientating when the ground and sky are all the same!

 

Thankfully we got it right and marched our way down to find the 'Secret' Bothy for some shelter. We felt like Scott's Polar Explorers as we marched along with frost freezing to our eyelashes and clothes!

 

 

Good navigation got us into the bothy and out of the weather. We'd all carried a few logs in our packs, so were soon able to get the fire going and even cooked up some hot food for lunch. But we still had to get home! After an hour inside the cosy cabin, it was a bit of a shock to find that a full on gale was in progress outside and another two centimeters of snow had fallen!

We put on every scrap of clothing that we owned, including face masks and ski goggles, set a bearing on the map and all piled out into the storm. Heads down, we marched our way out of the valley into the wind. Thankfully, we could still drive the bus, despite the remote mountain road that we'd come up on being covered in snow. A real adventure day!