A full value day, where we seemed to have packed in a bit of everything and made the most of living where we do! With more splendid weather outside, we couldn’t bring ourselves to head to the indoor climbing wall, where we’d agreed to enter a bouldering competition. Instead, we got straight out into the cool of the morning…

A full four-minute drive got us to the other side of the valley, where we left the car and set out into the emptiness of the Carneddau mountains, which is frequented by more wild ponies than humans…

As the air warmed up, I crossed over the summit of Gywn Wigiau for the second time in a week. This time, though, it had only taken an hour to get there and we didn’t have to shelter from the wind and snow!

We’d loosely decided to follow the broad ridge that leads up into the bulk of the higher mountains. We get a good view of them all from The Cottage, but rarely make the trek out there, so it was good to tick off all the summits along the way. A short de-tour to reach the summit of Drosgl (758m), got us onto the higher path and through terrain that felt more like the African savanna than North Wales. Next was the rocky peak of Berra Bach (807m) – which strangely is higher than Berra Mawr (794m), even though Bach translates to small and Mawr to big?!

Next up was Yr Aryg (876m) – another small rocky outcrop summit, where more food and water set us up for our final climb.

Via going up and over Carnedd Gwenllian (926m)…

It had been ages since we’d been to the top of Foel Grach (976m). The little summit shelter is still in good shape, but it would still be a desperate place to shelter for the night! There was actually a large snow patch leading up to the summit, so we kicked steps all the way up it before tucking into the last of the sandwiches.

The summit ‘desert’….

There was a slight temptation to continue higher to further peaks, but we’d reached our goal and finished our food and nearly all our water, so headed west along the ridge from the summit to descend into the Caseg Valley. Half way along the unnamed ridge, we heard the sound of frogs, then came across a small pond that was bubbling full of them! We crept up, but they all dived deep on our arrival, leaving only frogsporn to see.

From the un-named peak at the edge of the west spur of Foel Grach, we dropped into the valley (aiming for the large sheep fold), then followed a rough track back around the valley floor, skirting below the morning’s peaks.

On the track, we came past a curious sight – needle ice must have formed in the muddy puddles overnight and thawed during the day to leave a strange formation and pattern in the mud…

We were certainly feeling tired by the time we reached the upper houses of Gerlan, and the arty garden of the top house.

Back at The Cottage, we hydrated in the sunshine, sitting on the bouldering mat feeling very accomplished. It was around 16:00, and the climbing competition that we’d agreed to do finished at 19:30. Technically, we still had time, but did we have the energy?… Once the warmth of the sun started to dwindle, we decided that perhaps we did, so at just after 17:00, we drove down to Indy Wall, which was buzzing full of tired-looking climbers and with an air that was thick with sweat and chalk dust – quite the contrast from the mountains! Pumping tunes and a friendly welcome got us going and we soon got stuck into climbing as many routes as we could in the remaining time slot… Brilliant fun and some absolutely absorbing climbing. We were climbing until the final minute, at which point we could barely hold on anyway… Just after 20:00 we were back home and ravenously hungry. But the day wasn’t over! To mark the end of the winter season’s climbing aggregate and as a close for the competition, Jon from Indy Wall was hosting a party and had given us each a much sought after ticket! We arrived around 10pm to a venue that was vibrating with bass beats and got straight onto the dance floor.

The party closed at 4am – we didn’t quite make it that late, but danced until our legs would hold us up no longer!…. What a day!