Battle Renewed in The Carneds!

We hadn't intended to walk today but with a favourable weather forecast we decided to do battle once more with the Carnedds.  In recent months we have been up here on three occasions and so far had no views; the last time I had good views up here was in the mid 1980s!!  We again parked above Bethesda and set off, this time in calm conditions.  We gained height much more quickly today, without the handicap of storm force winds, but the clouds were refusing to leave the summits.  We were soon in both cloud and snow and the wind was increasing by the time we reached Garnedd Uchaf.  We continued the short distance to Foel Grach where we intended to have lunch in the mountain hut that we had used last year.  It didn't take long to cover this distance, but we were unable to find the hut, despite the fact that the GPS said we were standing on top of it.  And that was the only conclusion we could come to; it must have been buried under the huge bank of snow on which we were standing.  Having become cold looking for it we had no option but to carry on, donning crampons and unleashing ice axes, as the abundant snow cover was iron hard.  We continued on to Carnedd Llewelyn in thick cloud and hunkered in the shelter from the wind beneath its summit for lunch.  We decided to abandon Yr Elen, a satellite summit, as the thick cloud would have made it pointless; was the mountain yet again going to have the last laugh!  Pushing on we descended to the col between Llewelyn and Carnedd Dafydd.  As if by a miracle the mist began to lift and and finally we were rewarded with the extensive views and spectacular cliff scenery for which we had been hoping.  The ridge at this point was icy and snow covered and we could have been in the Alps!!  We even had good views of a solitary snow bunting, totally in its element.  We continued on to our final summit and had a last hot drink before descending via the delightful ridge of Mynydd Du in the beautiful golden light of the late afternoon sun.  Soon back at the car we celebrated our triumph with flapjacks; beer o'clock had to wait until we had driven back to my brother's in Lymm!!
What an amazing few days!!
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Blown Off the Carneddau Mountains, North Wales

It has become a bit of a family tradition to have a winter hill walking expedition with my brother, various of our children and friends.  This year, again, we opted for Snowdonia and booked in at excellent rates to the Royal Victoria Hotel in Llanberis.  We drove over on Monday 24th unsure what the weather was going to deliver us.  The forecast for today was dire in the extreme with gale force winds gusting to 70mph predicted.  Knowing that the forecasters often get it wrong, we decided to carry on with our plan to walk the Carneddau range.  We had been over here twice before in recent months, last year in a blizzard, and seen nothing, so we were hoping for good views.  Although breezy in the valley, it was a bright morning and we set off full of optimism parking above Bethesda.  Once on the open fell side the breezy conditions gradually deteriorated and very soon we were experience a full scale gale.  The light was brilliant, however, with clearing snow-covered summits and, as were were to be on very safe ground for some time, we decided to carry on in the hope that it would ease.  As we climbed higher and, on occasions, been virtually blown off our feet, it became patently obvious that it was going to be dangerous to go on the the more technical terrain and ridges of the summits, so we opted to retreat and do battle again in better conditions.
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Having decided to turn tail, we headed straight for the valley to seek out a more sheltered route back to the car.  This we did, coming across a group of welsh mountain ponies on the way.  We even found a patch of frog spawn on top of the grass; we could only assume that it had been blown out of some nearby water.
After having lunch back at the car, the decision was made to head for Anglesey and more temperate conditions at South Stack.  When we arrived, it was like being in a different world: much less windy, sunny and relatively warm.  We enjoyed wandering along the cliffs with spectacular views of the lighthouse and across to the Llyn Peninsular.  Although there were noticeably fewer birds back on the cliffs than there had been over at Bempton a few days previously we enjoyed good views of herring and black backed gulls, a single rock pipit, raven, rook, jackdaw, magpie and best of all choughs feeding on the grass by the RSPB cafe, where we enjoyed a welcome cup of tea.