Crib Goch by the East & North Ridges

No time to rest the legs yet. It's always important to have a plan B as well as a Plan A when working in the mountains (and often and C, D and E!). Today was one of those days. A high pressure over Wales this morning meant that we had our first frost of the winter in the valley and were treated to a spectacular sunrise. Having dropped my group up at Pen y Pass and then driven back down the Llanberis pass to park, my day started with a stroke of luck when my friends happened to be driving past, so gave me a lift back up to the top.

We made good progress up to the base of Crib Goch (the steep left-hand side of the photo below), but things slowed down soon after.

The weather remained fantastic but very cold (only a few degrees above freezing) as we picked our way up through the rocks.

It was past 13:00 by the time we made it to Crib Goch Summit. We all marvelled in the views and watched cloud pouring over Snowdon summit like a waterfall. Now that the clocks had changed, we would not have enough time to make the full traverse. But more pressing was the fact that some of the group were very worried about the exposure and unwilling to descend the same way, so we decided to make a descent via the North Ridge instead.

(it follows the redish ridge on the near right of the photos below).

It was suitably dramatic but got us off the exposed ground with the least amount of fuss. Soon we were back down on firm ground by the little lake with the island on it.

It was good to look back up at where we'd been - it looked miles away!

Having navigated over to the Main Cliff on Cryn Las, where I knew a path led down to the Llanberis Pass, we hiked easily passed the split boulder (and some big goats) to make it back to the van just before dark.