Mountain Lifestyle: North Wales Ski Touring on Carnedd Llewyllyn

Today's plans of going winter climbing were put on hold after waking up to discover that, somewhat out of the blue, North Wales had been buried in snow overnight! Right down to sea level there was about 5cm of fresh snow. Further up the valley, Tryfan and Bristly Ridge (behind), looked magnificent.

Seeing how such days are few and far between, I dusted off the skis and got straight out!

For ease of access, we chose to get up high using an old service road as this provided an easy base for us to ski up on.

The clouds began to clear, as predicted by the Met Office and the views opened up as we climbed.

Where the ground got too steep and rocky, we took a break to admire the patterns in the ice and tie our skis to our packs so we could continue on foot.

I'm testing a ski touring rucksack for Lowe Alpine at the moment, so this was a perfect day to put it through its paces. Tying on the skis was quick and easy, so it was getting full marks so far.

The fresh snow was wet and heavy, which made for exhausting and slow progress as we reached the rocky ridge. A small peak had to be climbed on foot, before we could get our skis back on and continue skinning up to the summit of Carnedd Llewyllyn. Without the added surface area of skis, we sank deepy into the fresh snow.

After such a pleasant start to the day, with not even a breeze, things became much more serious as we approached the summit of Llewyllyn. Although predicted by the forecast, the sudden arrival of gales was unfortunately timed with our arrival at the second highest point in Snowdonia. To give you an idea of the strength of the wind, I was blown completely over into the snow when a gust hit us from side-on like a rugby tackle! We were somewhat exposed as we wrestled to get on extra jackets and remove the skins from our skis. Before long, spindrift snow was blasting all around us and getting into every possible pocket, down our necks and up our noses. It was no place for a picnic, so as soon as we could, we descended carefully along the ridge.

Thankfully, a break in the clouds helped us to at least enjoy a bit of our hard earnt descent! The view wasn't the usual Snowdonia scene and despite the winds, I was able to marvel at the landscape, while cautiously skiing down.

Spindrift continued to blow past like shifting sands, making all sorts of beautiful patterns, but making the terrain frustratingly difficult to ski!

As I had some other engagements at 16:40, I was beginning to get concerned about the time, so rather than continue on to Carnedd Dafydd, we picked a good looking snow slope off the ridge that took us back down towards the Llugwy Resviour.

It was difficult, heavy snow to ski and I had to work very hard to pump the skis through some turns.

Being Swiss, Tim made things look much easier on skis and picked a great little gully to ski down.

Halfway down the gully, I took a proper tumble, when one ski hit a rock and stopped dead. The rest of me did a full somersault and I landed some distance further downhill and a little dazed. Amazingly, I seemed not to be injured. I'd tucked up mid-flight and landed on my back; the Lowe Alpine rucksack took the brunt of the hit, so top marks again for the new pack! (and yes, I did have a helmet on too!). Having collected myself and ski poles, I gingerly continued down, suspecting that I might ache a bit in the morning!

Back at the top of the service road, the pack's best feature revealed itself. With skis tied to the sides, it is not possible to open the rucksack in the usual way. However a sneaky zip around the back of the pack allows full access to the main compartment and in this case, rapid access to a well needed peanut butter sandwich and a drink of water. Genius.

A rapid thaw was in progress by late afternoon. We skied the road as far as we could, then we continued on by linking patches of snow and grass, but eventually, we reached the end of the line and were forced to walk the final kilometre back to the car.