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There is still hope that the winter will stay with us. Yesterday the temperature at home was a tropical 13.5 and a lot of the snow had disappeared but we have enough to carry us over a mild spell I hope. With that in mind and a freezing level of 1000m we ventured on to Snowdon to see what was available. Not a lot as it happened but not far off as there was lots of snow still around and all it will take is a drop in temperature and the snow should get transformed to perfect neve . Unfortunately it wasn't quite right today with very soft snow making the going tough and that was just getting to the bottom of the routes on Clogwyn y Garnedd so we decided to cut our losses and just go for the top of Snowdon for a look around but unfortunately the visibility was very poor from about 700m. There were also signs of avalanches all along the PYG track below Crib Goch (see above photo)which may have been triggered by the sun and warm weather yesterday. The snow pack was wet down to the

We had a lovely walk from Betws y Coed to Llyn Elsi and then down Sarn Helen (the old Roman road) with some spectacular views of the Carneddau with a good covering of snow. The photo was taken by my other son Garmon on his phone.

I've just returned home from running a winter skills course up in the Cairngorms. The course went well with almost perfect conditions which was loads of snow and zero visibility for most of the week. The group were keen to learn and enthusiastic throughout. The course consisted of an over night stay in a snow hole which was very difficult to dig as the snow pack had recently thawed and then refrozen to create a hard thick layer. We did what we could and used a lot of blocks to build out - it was hard work but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.