Start of the Watkin Path

At about 650m the water that wasn’t flowing in streams started to be frozen and snow laid in patches all around. As the water runs down over the path it was slippery and treacherous. It started getting cold here; a mix of altitude and the wind coming over the ridge that runs northwest to southeast between Snowdon and Lliwedd.

The final leg to the crest of the ridge (a further 50m of vertical ascent) was less clear, maybe down to the snow covering obvious tracks, but the well laid track was now gone.

First Summit - Lliwedd

From the ridge I struck out southeast to the West peak of Lliwedd (GW/NW-008, 898m). Up close this looked like a monster! It was difficult to see where the peak was and there was no obvious path to ascend.

My first view of Lliwedd

At this altitude everything was covered with snow so where you may have otherwise been able to follow a worn track up the rocks I had no clues at all. I started a tentative climb, literally on hands and knees at many points hauling myself up steep inclines. The ice made for a slippery surface and approaching from the ridge I found there was a pretty sheer drop to the left that caused me to stop and re-evaluate.

This was at the edge of my ability and experience and I had to be honest with myself and turn back if it was too much. Working my way around to the southern face of the summit made things a little less scary but still a very, very challenging climb in the snow and ice.

Suddenly I could see the summit…I had made it and, despite the wind down on the ridge the summit was relatively calm. I guess the wind hitting the sheer northeast face caused some sort of wing effect putting the lee side of the summit (just 3 – 4m from the absolute peak) in a little wind free bubble. I arrived at 09:40 and spent 40 minutes on this summit.

Lliwedd seen from between Rhyd-Ddu Path and Aran 

I cracked out the 2m handheld and stood up the external aerial in my backpack and quickly worked 8 chasers. As I’d taken my telescopic pole and MTR5B I wanted to try and give some points away to more distant stations so I put up my 20m EFHW vertically and tried a bit of CW. 20m was pretty much dead…this was always going to be a risk which is why I’d taken 2m as a back up.

I managed one Hungarian station but with no other takers and unable to spot myself I called it a day. I may not have been in the strong wind but the temperatures were sub-zero and my hands were getting cold.

A panorama from southwest to north east from Lliwedd summit showing Aran and Snowdon

Descending back to the ridge was easier and I was able to backtrack my route roughly by following my tracks. The snow actually made descending easier as I could simply dig my heels in. Once back on the ridge I picked my away along it, the trail sometime clear other times less so. Where it becomes less obvious people have placed small cairns to mark the general route. From back here on the ridge I could clearly see a path heading up to the left of Snowdon…it appeared as a white track where nothing protruded from the snow. It was only when I saw someone descending that I realized just how steep the route was…they were having to hold on to the rocks around them to prevent themselves from falling.

Second Summit - Snowdon

As I started the ascent to Snowdon (GW/NW-001, 1085m) it quickly became apparent just how steep it was and, to make matters worse the path was snow sat on top of scree…it made for exhausting climbing as you never knew when it was just going to give way and slide out from under your feet.

On the ridge looking up to Snowdon

On the Rhyd-Ddu Path with Aran in the centre mid-ground

As the Rhyd-Ddu Path started to descend and bear west I turned south and kept descending along Clogwyn Du. A bit further down the Rhyd-Ddu Path I could see a walker with a shoe off and a few people standing around, clearly injured…later the mountain rescue helicopter flew in to extract him.

From this point you drop from 930m down to 470m over a horizontal distance of about 1300m. It’s bloomin’ tough on the knees. By this point my thighs, calves and knees were complaining and a few time I slipped onto my arse as I lost my footing in the snow or scree. I slowed my pace to ensure I didn’t have an accident…the air rescue were busy already, I didn’t want them attending to me. The snow quickly cleared and this would be the last I saw of it on this trip.

My first view of Aran from Cwm Llan

As I started the final ascent of Aran (GW/NW-019, 747m) the fields were sodden with water. I followed the path of a stone wall but this required some challenging climbing in some spots so I opted to zig zag up the grassy slopes where I could until the terrain forced me back to the wall. Eventually I came out onto a plateau where the wall I’d been following turned east. I looked up and, genuinely, my heart sank. If I thought the north face of Aran to this point was steep I had worse to go.

I almost baulked…I almost gave up. My knees and thighs were screaming out not to take another step and I knew I had a long walk back to the car to go but I was so close. That last 100m of vertical ascent was true mind over matter. I just kept taking another step, and then another and another with lots of long breaks in between. And suddenly I was there…I’d made it, my third and final summit.

Station on Aran with Snowdon and Lliwedd in the background

It was windy here again and I was exhausted. I knew I didn’t have it in me to set up for 20m and by now it was 3:00pm and I was keen to finish up and start the long trip back to the car. I worked a good handful of local and not so local stations including a Summit to Summit from an excited Si (M6IMN) who was just working his first SOTA at Pole Bank in Shropshire. After 30 minutes I packed up and started the descent.

The final descent

I’ve found it to be a truism that the descent can often be the most risky part of a climb/SOTA activation. On my OS maps I had seen what looked like a path following the wall just below the summit and heading generally east. I could see a couple of well equipped walkers about a 500m ahead and a group of youngsters with a satnav about 250m ahead of me so I followed this route with some confidence. I think we should have turned slightly north east to drop down into Cwm Llan but all of us continued east into an area called the Sheepfold.

Final descent from Aran