Hi Rob,
After having some fun on my snowboard yesterday on a hill close to the house I thought I'd try and venture into the mountains today. Was thinking Crib Coch but wasn't sure how easy it was going to be to get to it! Had a plan to go to the park and ride at Nant Peris and get the bus up but after a quick chat with a MR guy and some council guys by the Vaynol the prospect of the buses running seemed slim. The road up to Pen y pass was ok with care however the snow was being blown back into the road in places. The car park was partially cleared at Pen y Pass and with all the huge piles of snow it was reminisent of a scene from an alpine village. The path was easier than I thought with the trail well broken but was still hard work with 1-3 foot of snow at the sides. Once on the approach to the ridge proper alot of the snow had been blown off the rock which made it far easier going and I was beginning to enjoy the scramble. I made it up a couple of hundred metres past the start of the scrambly section and looked down after my foot slipped to find one of my crampons at a funny angle. The front basket had sheared in half, straight through the steel bars. So turned round to descend which was not easy without crampons even though I only had 2-300 metres of scrambling to downclimb. Think in hindsight I would have been better leaving the good crampon on. It was a shame it happened as I think conitions on the ridge would have been enjoyable, but at least it didn't happen halfway along. I was thinking of a little walk along the Pyg track instead but past the style it looked very hard work and I can only imagine that it would only get worse further into the cwm. There were a few folk about with most heading to Crib Goch, I guess to try and avoid the deep snow.
Roads were all ok really, I went via Caernarfon on the way just incase Dieniolen was dodgy, but came back that way and it was fine. Maybe see you out and about this week.
Carl.
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