Snowdon winter climbing

Crag/Peak: Clogwyn y Garnedd/Yr Wyddfa
Routes: Right-Hand Trinity (wIII 3,3,2,2:led p.1,3), End Gully (wI/II:des)
This had to be squeezed into a few hours before work: not an easy task, as Clogwyn y Garnedd is one of the longest walk-ins in Wales and I wasn't especially fresh after a 17 mile run yesterday. But conditions, which had looked good when gazing at the Carneddau from our cold rock climbing session on Friday, seemed likely to be better still today: at least in terms of high crags dependent on consolidated snow. After a 6am start, Mick and I plodded up the Pyg track towards Snowdon, quite a lot of water ice around and, as expected, good consolidated neve above Glaslyn and a great view of the face, which always looks pseudo-Alpine in these conditions. Neither of us had done Right-Hand Trinity, although we'd both done Central and Left, so it seemed an obvious choice. It's a classic winter line, a well-defined gully, which leaves the top right-hand corner of the Spider snowfield to snake right across the face. We soloed up the tedious lower slopes to the Spider, enjoying steeper ice on the left where possible, then continued soloing up steeper neve to the entrance to the main gully - a fairly tight slot at this point. I led the first pitch, which was excellent and absorbing, far more interesting and tricky than it looks from below. The gully went up to a short, turfy wall which was quite thin and surprisingly technical. I moved up right on the turf, then swung back left above a wide crack. An easier section then led to excellent steeper climbing on perfect neve as the gully tightens again to a narrow slot. Above, easier ground and a good thread lead to a lovely sheltered cave belay as mist enveloped the face: a great 40m pitch. The cave protected me from the spindrift funnelling down the gully as Mick led up the very thin rock slab above the cave. This involved a bit of thought and some absorbing mixed climbing up iced runnels: hard in these lean conditions. Above, easy slopes led to another narrowing and more fine climbing to the belay. This gave me a long easy pitch up superb neve, before Mick led through up a variant finish: taking the steeper left hand line up perfect frozen turf to an icy finish up the mild cornice. A great route, comparable to Eastern Gully on the Ladders as a stress-free, strait-forward yet continuously interesting winter line. We ambled down the tourist path for a bit, rather windy with poor viz, but decided to vary the descent by taking End Gully to the base of the face. This is short but allows more advantage to be taken of the good neve: nice downclimbing, then a short traverse to a steeper section, before contouring round to the bottom of the zigzags. A real shame we didn't have time for Cave Gully, but I had to get to work, so after a quick bite we yomped down the Pyg track back for an exceptionally early finish.