Winter walk with guests

I had already taken our Sabbatical guest Jeff onto a mountain. He suggested I do the same with his entire family! Or rather, go for a walk with his entire family. Trying weather had hit and his daughter was only just about to turn 8. I thought we could walk into Cwm Tryfan; you get the views of Tryfan itself without having to do any difficult climbing.

I met them in a local cafe, after having picketed. I hadn't met his wife Julie or his daughter Eleanor before! They were very nice. We had a coffee and a chat. Then we got into their rental car.

I accidentally guided them to Gwern Gof Isaf rather than the more suitable Gwern Gof Uchaf. Oh dear! But we corrected ourselves. We got kitted up and started on our way. It was snowy!

The path first takes you past Tryfan Bach. With these conditions, I figured  we may not get any further. You can't play games with a mountain! Eleanor was a bit cautious in the snow. I could see why! Jeff tried to convince her she was exaggerating but she was having none of that. But the landscape was spectacular!

We indeed decided to only go around Tryfan Bach and not any further. But when we got to where we thought of looping around, Eleanor jumped off a rock, and landed on a frozen muddy puddle. The ice broke and she was ankle-deep in the gunk. Oh dear! She was quite shocked and made a lot of noise. It turned out it her sock wasn't particularly wet, after all, so her foot probably wouldn't get all too cold, but she wasn't keen on such logic. Jeff gave her a sock of his own, and we decided to retrace our steps as we didn't know what the path around the other side would be like.

The way back was similar to the way up. Eleanor was being very careful, and Jeff was trying to convince her she exaggerated. Oh well! Apart from a pair of quite dirty leggings we got back down to the car without issues. I would have liked to walk a bit along the tramline there, but Eleanor wasn't up for it. I could see why!

We wanted to go for a nice hot drink afterwards. We tried Bethesda first, but everything was closed. Then we went to the Anglesey Arms. I had to be there later anyway! And they have nice hot chocolate. It hadn't been the nice sunny walk it might have been on a different day. but it was nice anyway!