Hi Rob - Conditions on Wednesday in the Craig y Ysfa were a little soft - Jo and I did Amphitheatre gully. It was soft sugary stuff with solidish foot placements, poor gear on the last pitch made it feel all of the 2/3 when topping out over the steep exit. It was fun but maybe we should have gone higher that day. Yesterday after a heavy frost (-4 in the valley), it was a completely different story. Back to Alpine Wales in the Ladders, bomber neve and great ice, brilliant clear blue skies. Took Jo up Playschool, which was same as other day, a direct start took in the ice under Eastern Gully. There were teams all over the cwm, Eastern, Western, Pyramid, Pyramid Buttress and perhaps Somme (bit far to see). Had a mail off someone in Western who said, 'Andy and I did Western yesterday following the direct line up the hanging chimney in the central part and then the direct "Right Hand Finish" up to the top. It gave 6-7 pitches of sustained climbing in the upper grades. Fantastic climbing and in good, quite benign condition.' We went for a recce rest day today low in Cwm Cneifion by Pinnacle arete, warmer last night and snow sugary again but ice looked ok higher up. Off to Snowdon tomorrow, and hopefully a bit colder tonight to firm things up again.
Take it easy,
Carl
No comments:
Post a Comment