After our beautiful, and relaxing Christmas break down in London, we headed to Wales from the 27th of December – to get in some hiking, and, as Wales had recently got it’s fresh dump of super powder snow on the mountains, we were in for a great time.
We woke up, first thing Sunday morning, and headed straight to Llanberis, as we needed some fresh hiking socks for Gina, as she had just bought herself a new pair of beautiful boots: Scarpa Ranger Lady – Gina was over the moon with them. After a swift purchase of her new socks, we jetted up Llanberis Pass, and parked the van in a wee lay-by just after Pen Y Gwryd (the expedition pub), booted up, and headed straight up the Southern flank of Glyder Fach. Once we hit the snow line, we knew we were in for a good day’s hike, as the wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, the snow was super fresh-powder, and the views were stunning.
Gina, Snowdon Horseshoe & her new boots
Snowdon Horseshoe
We powered up the hill, cutting through the epic balls-deep snow before reaching a nice wee plateau to which we stopped and had ourselves a lovely spot of lunch. As we bought up with us from London the beautiful Czech cookies that Gina baked for us, we thought that these would be a wonderful addition to our hiking snacks, and boy we were right: cheese ‘n pickle sandwiches, Czech xmas cookies and wonderful mint tea – perfect hiking foods.
Gina hiking in the snow
Snowdon Horseshoe
After a nice lunch, we headed right up towards the summit of Glyder Fach. We hadn’t seen a single soul all morning, and it wasn’t until we reached the top plateau that we found the other hikers traversing from Glyder Fach towards Glyder Fawr. We stopped over at Castell y Gwynt, where the views down the valley, and over towards Y Carneddau were majestical and Wintery. I took a few snaps of the ice covered rock formation over on Castell Y Gwynt, and looking across towards Glyder Fawr.
Gina hiking up Glyder Fach
Amazing views over towards Snowdon
Gina on Castell y Gwynt, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind.
Icy Castell y Gwynt & Glyder Fawr
From here, we traversed across to Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder, and stopped just shy of the summit of Glyder Fawr, as the sun was setting fast. We decided to head down a different route – from y Bwlch, straight down Bwlch Dwyglydion, and over to Llyn Cwmffynon. The sun was setting rather nicely, where we stopped for a breif moment to get some nice pictures.
Gina on Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder
Bwlch Dwyglydion – looking down towards Llyn Cwmffynon
Rather fantastic round trip, in glorious weather. Really nice to see Wales on top form!