Into the snow

Neil was over at my place after our dinner at Chris’. And he suggested that we tag on a hike the day after. And it happened to have snowed the day before, and more at night. The world was quite white! We wanted to see that a bit more close up. He suggested yr Elen. That sounded fine with me! I suggested going up over the nose, and coming down over the ridge. And that sounded fine with him.

We made sure to pack warm clothes and walking poles. And then we set off. The road was a bit slippery in places. And the first thing we did after coming of the road was walking past Susan and Dean's old house. And then we walked through the fields in the direction of our goal. There is a stretcher there is no official pass, and as far as I have been able to judge no actual pass either. You just have to make your way through a field with a lot of rush. I suppose the snow help us not sinking too deep into the swampy bits this area is a bit infamous for. Relatively dry we reached the foot of the hill.

Yr Elen on the horizon, and a tiny horse closer by

To get to the top of Yr Elen you need to negotiate two ascents and two relatively flat bits. The first sentence was fine. Towards the top of it we came across two young lads who were coming the other way. They said it was a bit brutal higher up! But quite doable. And we were noticing that we were indeed getting into stronger winds. We both decided to wear double gloves. 

After the first ascent 

After the second ascent and a coffee break in the shelter of some rocks, we were really buffeted by the wind like there was no tomorrow, and I wasn't sure if we should go all the way up. There isn't much room for error in these conditions! But Neil suggested we at least get to the bottom of the last ascent and make a decision there. And we decided go for it.

There is a path there, but in the snow we didn't see it. We just improvised our way up. The snow was getting icy but not in a particularly slippery way, so the going was not so bad. And then before I knew it we were at the top! The views were amazing. We took some pictures. And then we were ready to start the descent. We were getting peckish, but didn't want to stop for food in such an exposed place.

Neil stomping over the icy horizon

Close-up of the ice formations 

Neil om the summit

The way on

Summit selfie

View towards Elidir Fawr

The ridge was quite doable! It is a bit like a stegosaurus back, and you always have something to hold onto. But that wasn't even necessary very often. We descended quite fast, and without problems, and passed a family group coming the other way. And not much later we stopped for lunch. 

We could just follow the family’s footsteps! That was convenient. And when we walked into the main valley we came across more people coming the other way; I suspected they were a father-daughter team. We told them what to expect. They were ready for anything, with a rope and crampons and whatnot. They would be fine! 

Looking over a stream in the direction of the village 

Not much further now

From there it is a rather uneventful walk back to the village. It had been a great day! What views. I’m glad we persisted.