UKH

Hi, any on the ground reports from mid-Wales?  I'm in the various Wales winter related Facebook groups, but most of the news is coming from North Wales (good conditions) or Brecon Beacons (not much happening).

I've got the day off and a partner on Thursday, which is a near miracle, but also have a child's carol concert to attend at 6pm in South Shropshire and Snowdonia is going to be pushing it a bit on travel time, hoping I can find something in condition closer to home.

Definitely sack off the carol concert...

Get up insanely early so you can still make the carol concert?

Yeah this. Bumped into a chap on Crib Goch a few years back on a winter’s day with exactly the same issue… according to IG he made it back to Gloucestershire - so you can too.

Early start is a fall back plan, and have access to club hut in Ogwen which makes it easier as I could actually head up the night before.  I also have a very bad record of finishing winter routes on time, so keen to keep as much slack in the day as possible, plus 3 hour-ish round trip more appealing than 5 hour.

Wondering about Dinas Mawddy area or something from the back of the current Central Wales guidebook, but I believe they're all ice dependent i.e. if we get there and it's not frozen, we're stuffed.

There's also a little bit of me that's tempted to see if this is the cold snap that will let Clee Hill Quarry claim its rightful crown as South Shropshire's premier winter climbing destination.

Good winter conditions come round less frequently than carol services.

I've done a winter route in the top quarry on Clee Hill. It was shite. :⁠-⁠) I'd definitely just set the alarm for 0430 and go to North Wales. I left Sheffield at that time Sunday and we got one rope grade IV, then soloed two grade II ridges. Do a bit less and surely you can be back in time? My first winter routes after moving back to the UK were Pinnacle Ridge, down one gully and up another on St Sunday Crag, and was back in Sheffield in time to get the kids from primary school. You can do it!

Yes, had spotted your ascent of Desperation Gully.  I do think some of the rocky sections of the quarry have potential in the right conditions, a good freeze would help keep the rock together, but it's not top of my list given the perfect weather forecast on Thursday.

Wandered over past Pistyll Hengwm (south of Machynlleth) this afternoon (Tue) and it is a good bit away - even though the track and light snow on the way up is well frozen. The stream still has a lot of flow, little sign of freezing and it looks like it is freezing from the outside in, so you end up with water running behind a thin shell of ice rather than nice drooly ice like in the photos. I'd imagine Pistyll y llyn would be similar. Not sure about others. Maybe with another couple of days of freezing, but wouldn't put money on it. If you do go for it, they are logging above there, so watch for wagons coming down the forest road, which is like a skating rink and getting from the stream at the top back to the road would be like trying to cross the Somme. Best of luck!

That's great, thank you.  Kind of what I was expecting, definitely sounds like there will be better choices on Thursday

As the author of the winter climbing section in the Central Wales guidebook, I totally agree with Deri's assessment.

There is a lot of water ice in Mid Wales but it simply hasn't been cold enough for long enough to form climbable ice. It needs a prolonged spell of below -10°C overnight temperatures (for at least 6-8 nights) to bring routes into any form of climbable condition. Last night was the first time,  during the current cold spell, that it's been that cold here in Mid Wales.

Thanks for all comments above. We ended up on Cadair Idris, climbed Cyfrwy Arete and made it back in time for Christmas concert.

It was a lovely day to be in the hills and I enjoyed the route, but there was a lot of dry rock, I climbed as much with my hands as with axes.  Turf is generally well frozen, but feels a bit 'airy ', we were wondering if it was quite dry when the cold arrived so there's not loads of ice mixed in with soil.  Other than where it has been stood on, snow was unconsolidated but looked pretty.