 After a few years of messing around with ice axes and crampons, I am looking to up my game and try a few winter mountaineering routes in North Wales. I have a Cicerone guide for summer scrambles, but cannot find a similar one for the same sort of thing for winter - does anyone have any recommendations?
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 - does anyone have any recommendations? Yup. Do the the summer scrambles in winter conditions 
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I have done a few ridges - I was wondering about gullies and the like.
Where is that?
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I had a flick through this a while back. Some good ideas in it. I think winter guides for Wales are a bit thin on the ground for some reason. Loads of routes online though. That's just Tryfan. Fantastic day. Not another soul on there.
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Cheers for the recommendation. I thought I recognised the top and bottom photos as Tryfan, but the middle looked a little like the top of Y Gribin. It must be the snow
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 I'm not aware of any winter specific mountaineering guidebooks for Wales. Ground Up do a good (recent) Welsh Winter climbs which has a few of the easy gullies and ridges in. Cicerone do one too but it's old and nowhere near as good (topo's are hand drawn at the back of the book vs photos).
Dan Bailey's Ridges of England, Wales and Ireland is definitely worth a look too, it has a few winter specific routes in it as well as seasonal notes on the summer routes listed.
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 Um, Rob, both those books are specific winter mountaineering guides to Wales! Jonny, I'd suggest you pick up a copy of the old Cicerone Welsh Winter Climbs book. Although the new Groundup "North Wales Winter Climbing" has all the pretty pictures the old Cicerone guide covers a larger area, and has more of the easier gullies and such.
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 Yes, Ground Up's the one you want for completeness. Alternatively the Rockfax Wales guide has a few routes in too, and is in their typical easy-to-read style. 'Winter Mountaineering' guides don't truly exist. 'Winter Climbing' guides are more like it. If you want to stick to Grade Is and IIs (which are usually more mountaineering than climbing) then these 'climbing' guidebooks are still suitable. They are also full of inspiring gnarl photos.
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The Cicerone guide is worth getting (I still have the very ancient Rick Newcombe guide too). However, winter conditions in North Wales are notoriously transient. Even in the last couple of winters many of the easier climbs were buried under powder as thee wasn't really any freeze/thaw, just continuous cold.
If you are looking for gullies, here are a few suggestions:
Trinity face on Snowdon. Several good lines in the I - III range. Holds snow longer than most other places in Wales.
Parsley Fern - goes in most conditions.
Banana Gully on Y Garn.
Several lines on the Glyders.
Beware the sandbags in grades above III. Western Gully is V/VI depending on the route you take (IV in the guide). South Gully in the Kitchen used to be IV and IMHO is harder than Point Five (V) on the Ben, although not as long,
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That's interesting regarding sandbag grades. I've not done anything beyond grade I in Wales (that'll be thanks to transient conditions!) but have also heard of the sandbagging. I think it's down to the relatively short days and the greater accessibility of the climbs compared to, say, Point Five on the Ben. The adjectival grade takes this sort of thing into account. Maybe a bit like Almscliff with its 12 metre routes seeming undergraded. It's just they have to pack the difficulty in to a short space!
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Here are some more suggestions:
Glyders:
Main Gully about II
Central Gully II/III
Eastern Gully has one very hard short section round a chockstone, apart from which it is about II/III.
Glyder Fawr:
East Gully about II.
Y Garn
The left hand side can be climbed almost anywhere at about II/III
Idwal:
Introductory Gully (I) - needs a hard freeze. Just follow the crowds.
If you want to try something harder Slanting Butress ridge on LLiwedd is about IV. Good belays and easy route finding. However, it's long so take headtorches!
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Thanks everyone for the input.... will do a few easier routes to practice the rope work, then see how we go.
Cheers again.
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let me know if you need a partener on the easier stuff.
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Will do Tim - and likewise for the wall and some easier climbs. I need to build upper body strength again to get back into proper climbing - I have been a lazy sod for the last few years (post crampon induced ankle injury on Bowfell).
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ouch . just spent a couple of hours at the wall . very close to doing my first v4 bouldering prob . done all the moves but not in the right order . let me know when your free.
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