The Bearded Whelk: Easter Part 2; Are these the Alps? Are my Eyes Deceiving me?


The view from Y Garn down onto the Ogwen Valley, and Tryfan in the distance

I had it planned all the while that when we come to Julia's parents house for the remainder of Easter in Shropshire, I was going to leave Olive with Nana and Dadpa, then whisk my wife away for a lovely day wandering in the Welsh wilderness.

I should admit, this was more of a selfish need on my behalf, as Julia isn't too keen on walking for hours up a big hill, or mountain. She also hates walking in bad weather. So, I did my utmost best to be glued to the mountain forecast, and pick the one day where it said there would be no or little rain, lots of sunshine, and cloud free summits. I truly delivered. What I failed to mention was the magnitude of snow that was due to fall the night before. I knew it would be a good sprinkle, and set the scene. I didn't know it would be this good for April though...

... depending upon who's perspective you're looking at this from.

It was a two hour drive into Snowdonia, we arrived, got dressed, and were ready to walk around noon. Julia kind of cottoned onto what laid ahead quite quickly. The clues were the fact everything was white all the way from the tiny 400m Wrekin outside of Telford, to the first slope outside the car in the car park at Nant Peris.

Looking down towards the end of Llyn Peris, which was our start point

From here, I decided to head up the southern slopes of the Western Glyder range to Y Garn. Looking at the map, it was clear this was merely a 'gentle' slope to the top, as opposed to a steeper, and craggier affair on the other side, which may be less appreciated in the snow. We barely got far before the task at hand became apparent. I was kicking steps for us to walk on, and was going into the snow about knee deep consistently. I was up to my waist on several occasions, and Julia was wise to ignore those routes I was cutting. Needless to say, someone wasn't having as much fun as I clearly was.

This shows what we went through at times

The going was fairly relentless, yet consistent to the top. Halfway, a small group passed us with their dog. Thanked us for the excellent steps we'd made, and took over themselves, so we had a nicely laid out staircase to the summit. We passed a skier along the way as well, and going by some of the markings in the snow, there were plenty who had taken the opportunity to come by these means this way.

"Are we nearly there yet?"

I felt a bit bad dragging Julia up nearly 950m of ascent to the top, but when we got to the summit, the views were breathtaking all around. You could see the whole of the North Wales coastline; we were sitting staring straight down the Ogwen Valley, with the Snowdon range looming over us from behind. What is also amazing in the Ogwen Valley, is you often see fighter pilots training at low altitudes. To put this into perspective, they were flying some 400-500m below where we sat, and they made some noise as they flew through.

L-R, Carneddau Range into Ogwen Valley and Glyder Range, Snowdon furthest right

Julia appreciating a spectacular view

I was one happy bunny up there today

We sat down alone, looked at our setting for some time, ate some well deserved food, and drank a typically British cup of tea to mark the effort. We kept ignoring the inevitable, but eventually, it had to happen. We went back down.

This was predominantly spent having fun seeing who could find themselves, a/. on their bums the quickest, b/. in the deepest unexpected hole. It was evident in places that as this side faced the sun the whole day, there were areas where the snow had melted. I don't think there will be a great deal of it left for the weekend revellers anyway. Then again, the forecast isn't supposed to be all that great either at the moment.

Shame. I'd love to come back again in a hurry.