Its winter then!

I have been out with regular client and friend Mark today for a day of private guiding in the snow. We headed up the North Ridge of Tryfan (II) which gave a brilliant day out in the current conditions. We have had a reasonable dump of snow overnight and it has been snowing on and off all day down to about 500m. As we reached about 700m we hit the freezing level and where the route had been wind scoured it was quite icy. The turf was frozen above about 800m and we wore crampons for the upper third of the route. These are typical early season conditions the best sport is to be had on the ridge lines, the iced up cracks and unconsolidated snow make for good fun!
My friend and fellow instructor Huw Gilbert was also out today and climbed the Clogwyn Y Person Arete (III, 4). He reports similar conditions with crampons necessary for the entire route and plenty of good hooking action.