North face of Bryn Alyn!

A wacky attempt to work out a novelty winter mountaineering route in the Clwydians. The remarkable conditions provoked me, but it is clearly an impossible task: the steepest 'face' in the range is probably the northern slope of Bryn Alyn, and that is sufficiently steep for all of 60 metres or so. From the Burley Hill bridleway I ploughed up an obvious shallow 'gully' to the terrace traversed by the normal flanking footpath (the only landmark hereabouts is a little pinnacle on the crags just left of where this 'gully' emerges). Then steeply up very deep snow to gain a shelf leading left to a tiny vague gully with a tree at the top. I squeezed behind this to a miniature ridge which led to the top. Exhausting waist-deep drifts led across the plateau to the normal flanking path. A ridiculous outing.