With a weekend of winter walking planned, I was dismayed to find that bad weather meant I couldn’t drive past Loughborough on Friday night (at least, not within anything other than a glacial timescale). Having consoled myself that the weather in Snowdonia would probably be rubbish anyway, I awoke on Saturday and decided that the nicely gritted roads were a sign that I should make the drive.

I duly arrived at Pen y Pass at 14:00, and set off up the Pyg Track assuming that it would be well-trodden and nicely compacted. However, with half the population of the country confined to their homes it turned out that there was still a lot of powder floating around. Nevertheless, I made it up to the obelisk where the Pyg meets the Miners’ in under an hour, and then returned the same way to pick up the mitts I’d dropped somewhere on the ascent. Running downhill through 18 inches of powder in crampons turned out to be the most fun thing ever, but I’m afraid I forgot my camera so couldn’t capture my look of glee.

This morning I met Gary bright and early, and we set off on one of my favourite walk/scrambles, Daear Ddu ridge on Moel Siabod. As usual, it didn’t disappoint, with plenty of wind-blown snow drifting all the way up the ridge.

A single axe was sufficient, along with the ability to swim up particularly deep sections of powder.

A waltz along the top of the main ridge saw us descending to the car, and onwards to the cafe at Bryn Glô where I had a frankly amazing fish finger sandwich. A great pair of snowy excursions, good company, and fantastic cuisine – an excellent way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.