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Wild camp 600 meters up in the Glyders, Dec 2010I thought it was time to push my wild camping exploits up a notch, and test my gear and myself in hard-core winter conditions. I have camped in temperatures as low as -10c before, but never high up
on snow, so why not?
With one of the coldest Decembers for many years still in progress, I was itching to get a wild camp in soon, so on a sunny (but still freezing) morning I set off for Snowdonia, my aim was to camp up high…possibly on the peak east of Glyder Fach called Y Foel Goch (The Nameless Peak)
The quickest way up is by the miners track from The Pen y Gwryd Hotel, I parked in the frozen lay-by nearby, and was soon walking the snowy hillside with a heavy pack, with many warming luxuries, and my water needed, just in case the streams were frozen en route.
The sun was on my back, but some cloud hung around the heights of Snowdon and the Glyders.
As I neared the higher ground at 600 meters, the bitingly cold wind swept strong from the north over the plateau between Glyder Fach and Y Foel Goch, at that point I knew that I would not be camping on the summit with no shade from the wind. Luckily nearby to my right I could see a flat bit of ground shaded somewhat from the wind by an outcrop above. Although only 100 meters away, it was hard work getting there through the knee deep snow, made deeper here by the constant spin drift that was whipping over in the wind. I cleared the snow away and set up my haven for the night.
By now it was about 3pm, not enough time to go up Glyder Fach or Y Foel Goch as planned, so I walked about half a mile to the watershed above Llyn Caseg y Fraith, this walk usually only takes about 10 minutes, but today in knee deep snow took me about 25 minutes.
I retraced my tracks which were disappearing away with the spin drift, back to the tent in good time to watch the sunset between Y Lliwedd & Snowdon.
Once the sun had disappeared down behind Bwlch Saethau I dived into the tent to warm up in “down goodies”, and with soup and a nice hot curry soon to follow I remained warm through the evening. Inside the tent soon froze over, but when I lit my gas lamp it became a mixture of frost and drips, but at least it raised the temperature from -2c to +2c. The wind and spin drift kept hitting the tent through the evening and night, and apart from 1 call of nature at 10pm I never ventured out until 15 hours later.
The next morning I woke at 7.40am hoping to see a nice sunrise, but I was disappointed to see that cloud had poured over during the night. Once I had packed my gear it was time to take down and pack the freezing tent...not the nicest of tasks! Especially with all the pegs now under several inches of fresh spin drifted snow.
It had been a good test, one which I had survived, in fact more than that I was comfortably warm!
It’s good to test yourself now and again!
SEE THE VIDEO HERE:- [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmM1F-1ZKgg[/youtube]