With ice climbing conditions starting to form in the mountains, but without any available daylight hours, I decided to head out into the night to see how frozen things were in Cwm Idwal.

It was a particularly cold and clear night. It was -2°C at The Cottage when John picked me up and two degrees lower when we parked at Ogwen Cottage. There wasn’t a breath of wind and the sky was packed with stars. There was just enough light from the crescent moon, but the walk up was aided considerably by the bright light of John’s new headtorch. Somewhat surprisingly, the steam was still flowing at its base, but having come this far, we hiked a little higher to where we found ‘just enough’ to climb on.

We began to swing leads, finding good belays, but not much in-between – apart from a peg on the first pitch! A rarity in the Ogwen valley.

Although thin in places, (and at times spraying with water!), the ice was ‘chewy’ and gave satisfying and safe ice axe placements.

The 300m route gives around four good pitches before easing off to an angle where we moved together.

It was 21:30 when we reached the top – just as it started to snow. On the walk down by the devils kitchen, we looked into the great cleft to check the ice, while the snow flakes grew in size and intensity.

An hour later and we were back at the car – having worn crampons the whole way down to avoid slipping on the awkward ground. A super adventure and good to have been swinging an ice axe again – especially so close to home.A far cry from climbing in the sun in Greece a few weeks ago!

– Idwal Stream, II/III***