Telephoned Steve Tree yesterday and asked if he wanted to go searching for some ice. He sounded very keen and so we arranged for him to collect me at 08:00am.

I wasn't terribly optimistic. I expected lots of snow as there had been lots the time Dingo, Tom and I went up to Cribin. I packed two sets of crampons, rope and an ice-axe.

Steve collected me bang on time in his Dad's rather nice Golf GTi. At Glyntawe we could both see that there was very little snow around indeed. Still, we hope for some higher up and hoped more for some ice in the gullies.

We passed Joe's Waterfall... and that's what it was! A waterfall! Parked up the road and headed off to traverse the bottom of the Bannau Sir Gaer escarpment. Even as we got higher, there was very little snow to be found. Some of the gullies has accumulated lots of snow and there were mini-cornices to be seen leaning out from the ridge, but certainly no ice. We traversed all the way around almost to Llyn Fan Y Fach.

Bannau Sir Gaer

Decided to walk up a snow gully. There was no ice to be seen in it and it was a mere trudge. Still, it was a chance to put on some crampons and use the ice-axe! The problem was though that it had a firm crust and as soon as you put your weight on it, down you sunk up to in some cases three feet! It was tiring! Steve complained of frozen fingers and I don't think he enjoyed the walk up. I think he got the frozen fingers when putting on the crampons.

At the top we had a scan around for some interesting lines but found none suitable for today. In fact one I climbed three years earlier was just a stream with not even any snow in it!

Walked off back along the ridge and down to the car. Introduced Steve to the delights of the Tafarn Y Garreg. There are new owners there now... Still the same old pub tho'! Apparently the old owners are running the caff at Dan Y Ogof.

Still even the tho' the climbing was not up to much we had a good day out. A bit of exercise and a good ol' chat with Steve.