A night of hail storms has returned the wintery scenes to the mountain tops. It looks nice but is mostly difficult to travel though, so we opted to stay low today.

The cold temperatures have been accompanied by some very strong north westerly winds, so in an attempt to find a little bit of shelter, we went to the south east side of Anglesey, where Benllech seemed to have both sun and shelter.

There are a few crags there too, so in order to go for a ‘walk with purpose’, we took our climbing gear along, as neither of us had climbed at the old quarry wall of Craig Dwlban.

It was pretty much as you’d expect. Cold, a bit overgrown and damp in places! But it was sheltered! It only really gets the sun early in the morning, so best for a hot summers day. Still, we got up the easiest of the gently overhanging routes, and top ropes another while we could still feel our fingers.

It’s a really nice walk around to Red Wharf Bay, and a new section of the coastal path for us. There’s a couple of bars and cafes there now, but we had a picnic on the beach. This was the view as we sat down and the sun felt warm. Ten minutes later it was snowing!

We stayed in the woods for shelter on the walk back, but too on the ‘bracing’ air on the beach for the final section back to the car.

Back at The Cottage, the weather alternated between clear blue skies and torrential hail storms, every thirty minutes. We had time for Clare to get online for some work calls before heading to Llanberis to celebrate Emma’s birthday, with Matt providing his excellent freshly made pizzas to order! Fig, honey and blue cheese being my new favourite toppings!

Climbs at Craig Dwlban:

• Escape Route, 5c
• Contraflow, 6b