Winter 2004-05 PART 3:
Deep snow and blue skies on the Arans,
March 6th 2005

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Colder weather duly arrived towards the end of February with a variety of Northerly and Easterly blasts of cold air, just when many snow enthusiasts had written off the winter as the most boring on record! Goes to show, you can never assume too much about our weather! This page concerns one of the best (if most tiring) winter walks I have done in years....

While some parts of the UK saw falling snow on many consecutive days, with considerable accumulations in places, here in Machynlleth we had no such luck. We are only a few metres above sea-level, after all. Didn't stop heavy snow showers turning up from time to time though, as this pic shows, and the mountains hereabouts received several snowfalls which settled one on top of the other and drifted in the strong winds.
Late one afternoon I drove up the Llanidloes mountain road in poor light to see what the higher mountains looked like. The plastering of snow on the higher parts of the Arans, at the head of the Dyfi (sometimes mis-spelt Dovey) valley, immediately made my mind up for me. With a wind-free high-pressure cell forecast to be slap-bang over us the following Sunday I decided it was time I took the camera for a walk.....
The standard route up the Arans begins at the head of Cwm Cywarch, a beautiful valley above Dinas Mawddwy. The first mile of the route is dominated by Craig Cywarch, a big rambling crag with some big, rambling climbs on it! With the forecast spot-on, conditions above looked to be ideal. Note the different light on some of the following images - because I decided to concentrate mostly on getting to the top on the way up then make my way back in a more leisurely manner. Thus some were taken during the ascent, some in the descent. I started walking at 11am and with a few photo-stops reached the top at 1300....
The route goes diagonally along an old miners' track up the LHS of this deep valley - you can just about see its faint line here. The track ends in a peaty sprawl from where a less well-defined path works up onto the shoulder of Dyrysgol....
...and then on across a narrowing ridge to the sharp mini-summit at Drws Bach (2500ft ASL), seen in the distance. A cairn on the top with a plaque marks where a Mountain Rescue Team member was killed by lightning back in the 1960s, and standing at that spot one can appreciate its exposure and its liability to be prone to a C-G or two...
The final wind-blasted snow slopes leading up to Drws Bach. The snow was variable wind-slab which supported one fully for a few paces then gave way plunging one knee-deep or further in places making for tiring progress uphill...
.....on the final approach to the narrows of Drws Bach. Here, a great drift had banked up over the top of the fence to form a fluted ridge for a short distance with substantial drops on the L. Here the ice-axe was carried in case of a slip....
...en-route through this section the next task was unfolding - the broken ground leading to the summit rocks of Aran Fawddwy (2970ft ASL). Note the ground blown clear of snow in places....
....approaching the beginning of the final slope with the broken East Face straight ahead and, below, the lonely source of Afon Dyfi - Craiglyn Dyfi - partly frozen over. The ridge that slants diagonally up L behind the lake used to be called "Death Ridge" by people I once climbed with many years ago. Sounds melodramatic? Try climbing it on a hot, windless, humid August day and you'll appreciate why!!
Another view of Craiglyn Dyfi from one of the snowless patches. The haze at lower levels is evident as the greyness just above the far horizon....
The ridge to Aran Fawddwy from the first top is a pleasant half-mile in good weather, although a little hard-going with the fragile slab snow. With every few hundred feet gained in ascent, the sky to the north and overhead turned a deeper and deeper blue, with the lower-level haze apparent in this image masking the horizon and obscuring the longer-range view. Never mind that: plenty of decent foreground to concentrate on today!
Approaching the summit past great drifts and rocks covered in ice-rime...
Phew! Looking at the summit trig point and beyond into the hazy south. It was well below freezing up here, with a thin Northerly breeze not apparent further down...
....and nobody except a raven for company.....
I had noticed these drifts on the way to the top so wandered across to them for a few shots. The ice-rime on the wire was rounded, having thawed quite considerably at some point...
...and so it was time to go back down into the hazier skies...
By now, the sun was at a much lower angle. This image was taken on the way up, before noon....
...while this was taken looking in exactly the same direction shortly before 1600. The sun's rays are picking up the haze, to the extent that the detail on Craig Cywarch is now obscured and crepuscular rays beam faintly across the valley in between. It was good, despite now aching legs and sore feet, to have climbed up above it all into the clearer air of the mountain tops. Such days are remembered long after the aches have gone!
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