Ice Cold In Ogwen...

A Short Walk In The Snowdonian Kush

Or more accurately a crispy tramp up Y Garn, along the Glyders then down alongside Bristly Ridge and back to the beautiful A5 via a deep frozen Llyn Bochlwyd. See map.

The North Ridge of Tryfan picked out in the cloudy haze

There are days when you want to be with other people and days when you simply want to be alone in the hills. Your head hurts from too much thinking and feeling and you don't feel the need to share your chocolate - last Saturday was one of those.

And looking ahead the other way towards Y Garn and Foel Goch

It was a fantastic day, tagged onto the end of an extended cold, dry spell with most of the visible water in its best form - frozen solid - the sun slicing through light cloud and enough of a breeze to keep things cool and real on the uphills.

Looking across to the frozen watercourses leading of Cwm Idwal from the base of Y Garn's NE Ridge

The classic start point round here is at Ogwen Cottage, complete with loos, tea shack and easy access to beautiful Cwm Idwal. Idwal and the Devil's Kitchen path get kind of bust though, so we opted to head away from the shadowy cwm with its frozen water courses and up onto the North East Ridge of Y Garn, a mostly broad shoulder that zigs and zags you almost directly to the summit.

And up towards Y Garn itself - the NE Ridge is the humpy thing to the right of the picture

Fantastic views back towards Pen yr Ole Wen and it's interminable south ridge and across towards a sun-haloed Tryfan where the Mixed Route boys were playing with ropes. It starts gently, gets steep, then steeper still with, on Saturday, the top capped with a splurge on sunlit snow. Nice.

The top :-) Sunshine play ground ahead.

From the nicely defined summit shelter of Y Garn it was an easy, rolling descent to the frozen lake of Llyn y Cwn. Nicer down than up, but our reward was an interesting tramp up relentless frozen scree after dodging water-ice run off to the summit of Glyder Fawr. Frozen scree really makes you appreciate the virtues of the unfrozen variety - okay, it might move under your feet, but at least it gives purchase and isn't the bastard first cousin of water ice...

Looking back down the valley from high on the shoulder of Y Garn Lynn Idwal closest, Llyn Ogwen running next to the A5

Freeze frame city atLllyn y Cwn - the normally loose scree slope above was just as frozen

Bursting into the sun up top was, as always on the Glyders, a bit like wandering onto the surface of a different planet. It's been said over and over again, but those weird, spiky rock formations give what ought to be a dullish plateau some real bite and for once, the views across to Glyder Fach, towards Tryfan and back to Y Garn and beyond were great.

One small step Fawr a man, one giant leap etc

More spiky weirdness. Very gothic.

Wander over to the edge and take a look down into the Nameless Cwm (Cwm Cneifon) home of some of the best winter climbing routes in the area and then across at Y Gribin , the scrambly ridge descent that finishes off the classic Bochlwyd Horseshoe started via Tryfan and Bristly Ridge.

The Castle of the Winds marks the end of Fawr and beginning of Fach

From Fawr it's a short dip down, then up again by the dramatic Castle of the Winds and over a jumble of giant, rocking boulders onto Glyder Fach and a wander through more spikiness and past the dramatic perched rock of the Cantilever - so many photos taken that it's beginning to fade away.

Oi! Who left that Stegosaurus lying around?

You can see why it;'s called Bristly Ridge, that missile silo in the background is Tryfan, top flips off for launching

From there we headed towards the top of Bristly Ridge. On a good day it's an interesting downclimb, but it gets verglassed in cold conditions, so we wimped out and headed down the scree slope by its side. Easy to spot from the distinctive finish of the ridge.

If frozen scree's a sliding slog heading up, teetering down is even worse, with conflicting forces of friction and momentum playing with the soles of your boots. And those deep-frozen snow patches... Yum.

The Bochlwyd skate park - possibly not a good idea...

From there it was all over bar the sliding. From the col between the South Ridge of Tryfan and Glyder Fawr, we simply dropped down the intermittently frozen path above the Lyn Bochlwyd ice rink and down to the road.

Call that a path? Standards are falling, like walkers...

Or we would have done if part of the path hadn't turned into a deep frozen waterfall. I can't say I've ever backed off a move on a walk before, but teetering across lumpy water ice above an interesting drop seemed like a bad idea, so it was back up and round via a non-signposted diversion.

The End :-)

From there it really was easy going, back to the road, back to reality and hazy, cloudy late afternoon views over Llyn Ogwen. If only all winter walking days were made this way :-)