A Winter's Ridge with a local legend - Crib y Ddysgl, Snowdonia UK

philsalwey (43)in #mountaineering • 7 years ago

An awesome day out with local legend "Big Bri"
6/2/18

Winter is here and the draw of a day in the snow.....
not ideal conditions, everything covered in flakey wind ice & vision hampered by gusty spin drift.

As always we like to put together our own route.
Starting at Pen y pass, taking the Pyg track untill reaching under the saddle between Crib Goch & Crib y Ddysgl we ascended the 250m snow slope & mixed ground.
Plenty of good ice under the recent snow, rocks exposed with flakey wind ice covering them in a hollow jacket.
With ice axes we picked our way through untill reaching top of the slope, our calves welcoming a minutes rest.

Picture: nearing the top of the snow slope.

Our original plan was to decend into Cwym Glass, and ascend a gully further West which led onto the Snowdon plateau.
A change of plan. The gully we had intended to decend was bare of snow and full of flakey wind ice, so we decided to traverse Cryb y Ddisgl Ridge.

Wow, challenging conditions lay ahead, well certainly for the next couple of hours.
A Ridge that is reasonably easy in summer conditions had turned into a bit of an animal.
40mph Spin drift hampered vision, whilst flakey ice hampered negotiating the safest route.

Picture taken with Crib Goch in the distance.

Picture: climbing one of the walls in order to stay on the Ridge.

Picture: the last step before the knife edge.

Mindful of the time, with the constant wind and spin drift, we kept moving.
Half way across the Ridge was the trickiest section, being forced to traverse the windward side, a section about 150m long.
With no good hand holds, flakey ice, delicate foot placements 40mph wind & 1000ft down ..... wow, this kept the focus, "hence, no photos here".

The Top "Summit" .... "half way ;)"
Time to catch our breath,
The cloud base had lifted exposing a very cold looking Snowdon,

Picture: Snowdon.