Day 2 with Tom, Ros and Erinna. We descended from the Simonyhütte right down to the valley floor - an excellent test of the gradient limits of snowshoes and the differences between our Decathlon and Hobbs models. A long, fun, powdery day out!
Tom and Ros were visiting for the weekend and the after a week of snow and rain, the weather was absolutely perfect for us.
We took the lift up to Dachstein from Obertraun and snowshoed towards the Simonyhutte. On the way I ran a mini avalanche training session them. Trying to teach something is definitely a good way to learn it! Thankfully they successfully rescued me three.
A welcome, but unexpectedly heavy dump of snow slowed the Lake District traffic to a gentle, sliding crawl. Getting to Grisedale seemed like a safe option so we went on a quick wintery horseshoe up to Great Rigg and down via Rydal Fell. Sadly, nobody could be bet into a double-pointer dip in Alcock Tarn.
One last day out before 2017 rolls in! A damp, misty ascent of Cadair Idris. Beautiful, panoramic views below the clouds. Terrible views within them.
There are many ways up Snowdon. I've climbed or walked almost all of them, but never the Watkin Path. Until today that was!
With the snow too soft to climb, I set off across Crib Goch with Tom and Katherine for a winter traverse in the cloud. Half way along, building an igloo large enough to stand up in and stand on top of seemed like a better plan, so we did.
