Tryfan Rescue

The weather is glorious and the snow on the mountains so tempting, that we just have to continue down the Conwy valley into Eryri proper. 

Of course, this is before the big Arctic snowfalls predicted later in the week, so the peaks are heavily dusted rather than completely covered, but against the blueness of the sky, they look dramatic. 

Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa - is for once clear of cloud and pristine in its coat of white, and both the Glyders and the Carneddau ranges follow suit. 

I’ve commented before on the forbidding nature of the craggy face of Tryfan, and today a rescue helicopter hovers overhead, its rotors whipping up the powder snow in clouds of white. We watch as it hovers, moving slightly before hovering again, worrying about whoever may be stranded injured high above us. Eventually, it flies off, and we conclude this was just a rescue drill, but on checking out the Ogwen Mountain Rescue site, discover there was indeed a walker stuck on a rocky ledge but ‘due to the precarious position of the walker it was considered too dangerous to attempt a pick-off so a small hill party were deployed. The team traversed in to the walker's location and set up a traverse to extract them to safer ground and then on down to the road’. 

It’s all too easy to underestimate the danger of these mountains, especially on a day as beautiful as this. Last year, the brave volunteers of this mountain rescue unit responded to 178 incidents. https://ogwen-rescue.org.uk

My main is obviously Tryfan, with extras of Yr Wyddfa and Llyn Ogwen 

(Taken yesterday - Tuesday March 7th. Today I’ve not moved from the sofa, trying to clear yet another infection so I’ll hopefully be well enough to travel down to London at the weekend - weather permitting!)