With snow on the tops of the mountains, it felt like we should capitalise on conditions, so I was back up in the hills again with an older group of students. This time we were able to access the higher peaks and set out for Y Garn from Ogwen Cottage.

The winds remained light and the visibility superb as we made good upward progress. Today to was due to be a gentle training day and introduction to mountaineering, so it was quite a stiff start for some of the students ‘first day’ out in the mountains – but all agreed it was well worth a bit of extra sweat.

The paths are now quite icy and we used ‘micro-spikes’ for traction – well worth having.

We could see the Isle of Man out to sea and the sun gave a good final blast from the summit.

Always nice to admire a bit of needle ice as well and remember the good old Uni dissertation days in Crowden Brook!

After getting a few wet feet ‘testing the thickness of the ice Sir’, we tumbled down the final steep section and made our way back to the warmth of the minibus, only a little bit later than planned…