Mellow Expeditions - @kage.climbs

Mellow Expeditions - @kage.climbs

This weeks feature comes from @kage.climbs who takes us back to his first winter scramble last year. As the colder months start to approach I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of this content on our feeds 🥶. Here’s what they had to say about the trip.

My first winter scramble. The location was picked fairly fast , Wales! My mate and I decided this was going to be the best place to start! Then the route itself , I’d seen and heard a lot about Crib Goch but never attempted it before , with some quick research and scrolling through pictures we knew this was going to make an awesome first winter climb.

After a 5 hour drive and armed with with nothing but the essentials and pure adrenaline we set off on the trail. Within minutes of our arrival we were greeted with a pretty heavy snow shower which continued for most of our journey. Not knowing what was truly waiting for us we stood at the base of the Crib Goch trail , a quick drink of water and a rearrange of layers and then we started to climb.

The snow was thick and settled fast but surprisingly the conditions where pretty good. Maybe a quarter way in , the local mountain rescue helicopter was doing laps of the valley and surrounding mountains , I was told by another hiker on the trail this was just a precaution they took on days where the weather was bad. At this point it suddenly hit me and I realised what I was actually doing! We where 900+ meters high , in a snow storm on a mountain in Wales with the mountain rescue doing laps above our heads.

After a few hairy moments from tackling the main ridge we found ourselves on the descent of the scramble , the crampons went on which made grip and traction much better but my lack of experience of walking in crampons lead me to tripping and landing flat on my face. Uninjured and slightly embarrassed I was back on my feet , dusted the snow off and took the laughs and jokes on the chin! This truly was an incredible experience and Probably one of my favourite scrambles.

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