Thread: SR : Wales 2012 / 13

TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER 2012

The Met Office is calling for the freezing level to drop to 600 m in the Brecon Beacons National Park and 500 m in Snowdonia National Park this Friday with the possibility for the first snow of the winter falling on the highest peaks.

BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK

Friday

Perhaps cloudy with a little rain at first but once this clears southwards it should be a much brighter, clearer, colder day than of late with plenty of sunshine developing. One or two showers are possible and, with the freezing level around 600m, these would be wintry on the hills if they occur. Fresh easterly winds will make it feel cold.


Saturday

Another bright day with sunny spells and perhaps the odd wintry shower. Still cold, and feeling especially so in fresh to strong northeasterly winds. Freezing level falling to about 200m.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/loutdoor..._pressure.html



SNOWDONIA NATIONAL PARK

Friday

A much brighter, clearer, colder day than of late with plenty of sunshine developing. One or two showers are possible and, with the freezing level around 600 m, these would be wintry on the hills if they occur. Fresh easterly winds will make it feel cold.


Saturday

Another bright day with sunny spells and perhaps the odd wintry shower. Still cold, and feeling especially so in fresh to strong northeasterly winds. Freezing level falling to about 200 m.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/loutdoor..._pressure.html


Took a trip to Snowdonia in September and with snow there are some easily accessed lines straight from the summit and from the path running beside the train line.









The previous three winters saw the first snow and turns on the peaks of the Brecon Beacons National Park in November (the 27th & 30th in 2009; the 8th and 27th in 2010) and December (5th and 16th in 2011).

Fingers crossed that this winter the first snow falls this week with turns possible in late October / early November.


TR: Wales 2009/10 - Between A Rock and a Hard Place
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...light=tr+wales

TR: Cymru 10/11 - Eto, os gwelwch yn dda! (Wales 10/11 - Again, if you please!)
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=202665

SR : Wales 2011/12
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-Wales-2011-12

Nice Mike. Amped for this thread again. Thanks for posting.

I predict you'll be in Niseko before you ski back home Hope I'm wrong

Mike, gotta say thanks for the Coed Y Brenin tip, checked it out two weeks ago and was some of the best riding I have done in a long time. I kept saying all weekend if it snowed in Wales (which I was told not enough usually to ski) the terrain would be top notch! Hope to make it back soon

Ps: Locals are some of the nicest I have met (I'm not British) and language is great to listen too!

hope it snows

Thanks LightRanger

Originally Posted by satori

I predict you'll be in Niseko before you ski back home Hope I'm wrong

Going to be a small window for me in Wales. I head to Hokkaido on 14 November, so this chance of early snow is great.

Back in Wales mid-April so late season turns aren't out of the question

Originally Posted by BC_ski_BC

Mike, gotta say thanks for the Coed Y Brenin tip, checked it out two weeks ago and was some of the best riding I have done in a long time. I kept saying all weekend if it snowed in Wales (which I was told not enough usually to ski) the terrain would be top notch! Hope to make it back soon

Ps: Locals are some of the nicest I have met (I'm not British) and language is great to listen too!

hope it snows

That's great to read BC_ski_BC.

Yeah some fabulous terrain around Cadair Idris and in the main part of Snowdonia National Park.

Less dramatic down south with me, but also less rocky which makes for turns when not a lot of snow has fallen.

Yea!! Mike's Wales thread's back again! Looking forward... Like Satori, I hope you get at least one cool line in the Welsh 'hood before you head back to Japan. Sounds like it's pretty iffy though. One day I'd sure like to shred with you lot in Japan... not this year though. Perhaps 13/14...

Fingers crossed. That's what makes it exciting and keeps things interesting here.

And hope to be heading to Hokkaido for many years to come.

SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER 2012

Nixed this weekend.

The below freezing temperatures and frost showed up but the precipitation was late to the party.

Glorious sunshine and high pressure on Friday and Saturday but no snow.

Wetter today but the thermometer has climbed to around 8 C

Another cold front sweeping through towards the end of next week.

Here's hoping.

THURSDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2012

Yr eira gyntaf - the first snow - fell on Cadair Idris in North Wales today.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A6m2Wo9CcAAO_wW.jpg:large


The highest peaks of the Brecon Beacons were cloaked in cloud for most of the day and hard to tell from the live web cam images if any has fallen, but it looks a little white up top.

Brecon Beacons National Park Webcam
http://www.breconbeacons.org/pages/livewebcams


Snow showers forecast overnight and heading up early tomorrow morning to have a look.

when you 'ear da word wales, you probably think of the fish with the biggest dick in the ocean. But it's also the name of a country, that is only 200 miles away from Britain.

Originally Posted by Schnappi

when you 'ear da word wales, you probably think of the fish with the biggest dick in the ocean. But it's also the name of a country, that is only 200 miles away from Britain.

ha ha.

Which part of Britain would that be?

The Brecon Beacons National Park is around 200 miles from old London town.

FRIDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2012

Well the first snow of the winter - yr eira gyntaf (in Welsh) - did indeed fall on the highest peaks in the Brecon Beacons National Park yesterday.

Derek Cummings pic
https://twitter.com/derrylynne/statu.../photo/1/large


Headed over this morning to see if there was enough to make the first turns of the winter.

Unfortunately not.

Overnight rain had eaten into what had fallen and the snowline had crept back up to aound 700 m.

So spent the morning driving around the park seeing where the snow had fallen.

Cefn Crew





Cribyn and the NE Face of Pen-y-Fan





Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan from Upper Neuadd Reservoir





I went back over in the afternoon for a walk to the top of Pen-y-Fan and some late afternoon pictures. Glad I did.

Upper Neuadd Reservoir from Pen-y-Fan





NE Face of Pen-y-Fan
(going to need just a little more snow)





The Pen-y-Fan slope down to Llyn Cwm Llwch with Corn Du in the background





The Pen-y-Fan slope down to Llyn Cwm Llwch





Corn Du from Pen-y-Fan









There's snow forecast tonight and tommorow.

Who knows?

vermonters woulda skied that^^^^^^^^^^^^

rog

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

vermonters woulda (skied) hit grass, mud and rock, gone over the handlebars, and tumbled down that^^^^^^^^^^^^

rog

Fixed it for ya

Did you guys get any of the 6 inches that hit Somerset?

A little bit more

Working through the pics.

SATURDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2012

Cold, dry, and sunny in Aberdare mid-morning when I received a text from my friend Martha Makin.

She was on her way to Brecon and took a quick snap on her phone from the back of the car as she sped by

Cefn Crew in sunshine and the new snow that had fallen in the past 24 hrs





I hadn't expected that much snow to have fallen overnight, so I wolfed down the remainder of my breakfast and I was off.


OPENING DAY IN THE CENTRAL BEACONS MASSIF 2012/13

Very busy in the toilets car park, with crowds of people coming back off the mountain and many more just starting up.

The snowline was halfway down Cefn Crew with between 5-10 cm of new snow falling since sunset the previous day.

From whence I came - the view down to the car park and the flank of Fan Fawr





Looking up the path to the snowladen slope below Corn Du




Cefn Crew panorama









By the time I got to the saddle between Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan the sunshine had disappeared and a storm was imminent.

Cwm Llwch (Powder Valley) panorama with the slopes of Corn Du on the left and Pen-y-Fan on the right





Corn Du panorama - what a difference a day makes

Friday 02 November 2012





Saturday 03 November 2012









The 'snowpack' that had stuck around in Cwm Sere (the valley between Pen-y-Fan and Cribyn) had doubled from the new snowfall and significant wind transportation.

With consolidation this evening and additional snowfall overnight it could be good to go.

The NE Face of Pen-y-Fan and Cribyn from the summit of Pen-y-Fan









I walked down the notch off Pen-y-Fan onto the slopes of Cwm Llwch and clicked in for the first turns of the season.

Snow this early in the Beacons is not unprecedented and my Aunty Val, a retired schoolteacher in the area, often recites the tales of taking her class for a walk on the last day of school before the October half-term holidays and seeing snow on the peaks of Fan Fawr and Pen-y-Fan.

But this was the earliest I've made turns in the Brecon Beacons National Park, by almost a month.

Cwm Llwch panorama





First turns of the 2012/13 season

The snow / tufted grass hybrid was suprisingly accommodating and slick





The hike back up to the summit plateau of Pen-y-Fan was brutal with driving snow and high winds.

Homeward bound but not before a run below Corn Du (the slope on the left of this pic) and to finish off a great afternoon I hiked up to the cefn Crew ridgeline and dropped in for my third run (the slope on the right).




Corn Du about to get engulfed by the latest storm rolling through





Great to be making turns again.

It was about a 20 minute walk out from where the snow finished and by the time I got back to the car park I was famished.

Thankfully the Pit Stops mobile food wagon was still firing on all cylinders.

A steak roll with fried mushrooms and onions and a cup of coffee went down without touching the sides.

And all for under 5 quid. Highly recommended.

Pit Stops mobile food wagon













As I left the car park the sleet was turning to snow.

SUNDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2012

Saturday evening brought torrential rain, hail, sleet, thunder & lightning in Aberdare putting a dampner on the Guy Fawkes fireworks celebrations.

But I went to sleep hoping that elevation would result in elation with the precipitation falling as snow in the Central Beacons Massif.

I met regular Beacons partner Chris Dainton just before 9am, and we were at the Bwlch Duwynt saddle about 40 minutes later.

By this time the morning valley mist had mostly burned off and the sun was lighting up all around us.

Ordinarily I don't head up to the summit plateau of Corn Du because it can be too icy and rocky, but I'm glad we went up today as the views were spectacular.

Yours truly heading up to the summit plateau of Corn Du
(Chris Dainton pics)













Cwm Llwch panorama - Pen-y-Fan to the right









Chris Dainton on the summit plateau of Corn Du





Yours truly on the summit plateau of Corn Du





Yours truly on the summit plateau of Corn Du with Pen-y-Fan in the background





And a first for both Chris & I, a Brocken Spectre projected into Cwm Llwch.

Wikipedia describes the phenomemon as

"the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre





Ridgelines rarely provide good opportunities to make turns but I was in luck today. There was consolidated and skiable snow on the ridgeline below Corn Du in the left of this shot

Corn Du slope





and Chris did a fabulous job of catching me in the act.

Your truly skiing Corn Du with Cwm Llwch below
(Chris Dainton pics)









With turns under my belt it was time to take a look at the slopes off Pen-y-Fan


FAN-TASTIC

The slope into Cwm Llwch which I skied yesterday was looking good, but the NE Face was looking great.

Chris Dainton on the summit plateau of Pen-y-Fan with Cribyn in the background





Additional snowfall combined with wind transported snow overnight had covered up most of the rocks and large tufts of grass and I felt the face was skiable.

I first skied the NE Face of Pen-y-Fan in mid-January 2010 which was the first time this face had been skied. And to my knowledge it hasn't been skied since.

1st descent line on the NE Face of Pen-y-Fan, January 2010





On my first attempt I was belayed over the rock buttress on wind blasted, hard packed snow, but this time I downclimbed kicking steps into the windpacked powder.

Looking down the NE Face of Pen-y-Fan





Chris walked around to the ridge line separating Cwm Llwch and Cwm Sere and took the following shots of me skiing and hiking back up the NE Face

Ready to drop in





Yours truly skiing the NE Face of Pen-y-Fan
(Chris Dainton pics)













The snow was very different from my January 2010 run.

Then the snow was hardpacked and slick in the upper section and powdery in the gullies down low.

Today the snow was toe to knee deep light powder with each turn going to grass and sending plenty of slough and pinwheels down the slope.

Amazingly the bases went scratch free.













Bootpacking back up













As I bootpacked back up, I took the following pic below me





and the top section of the face above me





And Chris took these pics of me getting back over the buttress
(Chris Dainton pics)









Fantastic day with great views, great turns, great company, and great memories.

And action shots in the Brecon Beacons to boot, a rarity for me, courtesy of Chris.

Here's to the next time.

Mike, when I meet you in Japan someday, the first round of sake is on me.
Phenomenal job, getting after it where few (to none) have gone before. This is stoke of the finest order!

Hear, hear! This takes "fast grass" to a whole new level.

Always love these Mike! Keep on keepin' on

alaska what?!





fkna, makes pretty much any other ski destination including mars seem way less exotic. WIN!!!

rog

Originally Posted by garyfromterrace

Mike, when I meet you in Japan someday, the first round of sake is on me.
Phenomenal job, getting after it where few (to none) have gone before. This is stoke of the finest order!

Thanks.

Look forward to it, and making turns.

Originally Posted by Mr. Multiglisse

Hear, hear! This takes "fast grass" to a whole new level.

Cheers. Yeah it was bloody fast in places