Snowdonia Panorama - January 2011

From Pen Llithrig Y Wrach

A spectacular weekend of sunshine and sub-zero temperatures at the end of January. As usual - a click on the pictures should show them large!

Day 1 Carnedd Llywelyn from Capel Curig.

leaving road near Capel Curig

Pen Llithrig Y Wrach

Up onto Pen Llithrig Y Wrach with a great vista encompassing Snowdon skirted with thin clouds and the Glydders with Tryfan rising up in front and to the right the target Carnedd Llyweln with Carred David beyond.

From here with line of sight the route is obvious - following the up and downs of the ridge,  over some (slightly) scrambly bits and the intermediate top of Pen yr Helgi Du.

A scramble down on the way up!

Fantastic views all the way and some ice underfoot.

Top of Carnedd Llywelyn with pointy tryfan at centre 

On a mountain top it is hard to resist the panorama setting (click for full effect!) ...

And over to the other side to find a route back to the north of the ridge.

On the way up I shared a joke with four people from South Wales (who would bother with the Brecons when these views are available?). In this view the helicopter is probably taking  the body of one of them - a 51year old man from South Wales who collapsed on the way along the ridge while walking with two ladies and another man who tried but failed to revive him.

Skirting along the far side of the ridge and then over the hill brings you to the path along Llyn Cowlyd reservoir into the sunset and back to the starting point. A round trip of around 25km nicely fills a fine winter day.

Day 2. A short route up Gyder Fach. Taking the ridge from Capel Curig village with views of the Carnedds on the right and Snowdon on the left.

The route starts above Capel Curig

Look up the ridge towards Glyder Fach with Tryfan on the right

Cantalever on top of Gylder Fach

 Each time I came here I wonder where all these large and shattered rocks could have dropped from. Maybe there is a geographer that can put me right on this?

The rocky top looking east

Saturday Bread

Pleasantly heavy sourdough loaves. Maybe slightly overbaked. MMMmm .

Ralph Storer Guides Scottish Mountains

 For my trip to Skye last year I really wanted the Skye Scrambles guide from SMC. It was out of print and hard to track down. Eventually I found someone who offered a loan of a copy and along with it came Ralph Storer's '50 Best Routes On Skye'. An excellent little book, most portable with a special style of writing, at once terse but authoratative.

Hard then to resist this when browsing Amazon for books on Scottish Mountains.

And I think there's more in Mr Storer before he gives up the pen!

Arranging the Music!

A major job for the winter holidays. A subject for much discussion and probably more than a few links.

Moving from here:-

and from here:-

 and from here:-

and from here:-

to here:-

The objective:-

1. Remove the mess of music (not a really a concept of mine, but certainly current in some others!).
2. Find the music I have (I'm not the one who moved it to another cupboard, shelf, room).
3. Avoid losing the music I used to have (there's a steady migration to various student lodgings and cars, sometimes never to return).
4. Keep some semblance of Hi-Fidelity in my listening pleasure.

... next the plan

Pretty Tasty! .. from one t'other

before: Pretty!

after: Tasty!

And here is the New Year loaf!

Not the main job over the Christmas break, but it would be a shame to go back to work without a few loaves in the freezer.

Here's a mixture of breads, some leavened with a sour dough starter and others using dried yeast granuals brought on with a little warm water and sugar. For the first time I had the opportunity to use all my bannetons as well as a newish heavy linen sheet for proving baguettes.

It was good to be without the time pressure of a short weekend. This meant time for each dough to rise and prove properly, and then was baked at the right time. Leading to 100% good results!

After two years in hiding the White Squirrel returns?

It is startling to see a white squirrel for the first time. I was running a regular route close by our local apple farm, and as I passed the giant pile of reject apples a white animal streaked away across the ground then up into the trees and out of sight.

This became a familiar but infrequent occurence over a couple of years. It was always one alone and usually quite early in the day. Then I thought I saw a second - not two of them together, but a few hundred metres appart along the path. There was no chance to confirm this however as that was the last sighting for some time.

Afer March or April 2009 there has been no sign - just the usual greys. Until today that is. Snaffling the apples just as I remember!

Can this be the same one? Or more likely a relation? Is this a gene which becomes visable once in a while among grey squirrels? Or is it a seperate and distinct animal?

If like the squirrel you want some interesting apples you can go to the same source at Cross Lanes apple farm http://www.users.waitrose.com/~crosslanes/contents_small/index.htm.

Has anyone else experienced the white squirrel?