The cliffs and cwm below the mountain of Foel Goch are some of the closest to The Cottage, yet up until today, I'd never really been up there. Keen for an exploratory day, I set off on my own, travelling light and fast, with just a 18L Lowe Alpine rucksack.
I didn't see a single other person all afternoon. There are no footpaths to this area (hence it's absence of humans), but I did follow a few tracks. First, a fox led me up onto the Yr Esgair ridge, where a raven had just landed and left it's mark in the snow.
I followed the ridge up to where it steepens, with an ever-increasing wind. The continuation up to the summit looked inviting, but a bit too serious for the lone traveller. Instead, I turned left and traversed the base of the crags, checking out the routes for a future visit.
It was cold in the cwm and now there was a strong wind blowing last nights snow around. This morning it had snowed heavily at The Cottage and covered the grass, but most of the mountain snow seemed to be blowing around in the air.
After locating the base of Red Gully, I set off upwards relishing the new view.
It's a wide and straightforward gully to climb. At the top, I took the harder (right hand) exit, which gave a bit of excitement in the form of spindrift simultaneously pouring down and blowing up it as I climbed. Thankfully, the snow and tuft gave solid axe placements, so with eyes squinting as best I could, I hacked on upwards to the top before I drowned!
Much more snow than yesterday in the valley.
I was glad to be out of the gully and get the snow out of my eyeballs!
The wind was harsh up on the summit plateau, so after checking out the routes in Cwm Cinion, I descended down 'Easy Gully' (Gd I) and into the relative shelter of the cwm I'd climbed out of. The visibility was great, but with every big gust came a wall of spindrift snow!
I kept my crampons and goggles on almost all the way back to the van. I didn't take long to get established back at The Cottage for thaw out chill out. Brilliant.
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