It was time for another foray to Snowdon. I went via Chester to pick up my skis that were in for a fine tuning. I hadn't dared look at them before dumping them in Sail and Ski with Dave Gore, but he didn't call to complain, and the soles were like a mirror - all waxed and lovely for the first week's skiing in Grindelwald, starting next Saturday.

There was hardly any snow on the North Wales coast which was a surprise and the snow level in the mountains was a few hundred feet above Llanberis. After all the kerfuffle from the rest of the country I was hoping for at least a metre of powder. The skis remain pristine until Saturday then.

Tramping up through six inches of snow from the Pen-y-pas road towards Cwm Uchaf I headed for a 200 foot frozen waterfall. There were a couple of climbers half way up it, axing their way to the top, so I stopped to take some pics, which turned out to be quite useless. The only way to get anything decent would be to climb up the side of the waterfall and try again with a longer lens. It was tricky going with snow on slippery rock an no crampons and the only handholds were clumps of heather. I couldn't get close enough and then a blizzard came up the valley, but I managed to get a rare shot of homo axus intrepidus, a hundred feet above solid ground on a 70˚ face.

Ice climbing below Cwm Uchaf

It's off to Geneva on Saturday and the mid range weather forecast gives hope of a sunny half term week. It's going to carry on snowing this week in the Alps clearing possibly on Friday night. Oops! I'd forgotten - Liverpool Airport will probably be snowed in - better start driving to Switzerland in the morning...

Ski Jungle Blog - Ice Climbing in Wales