Temperature Inversions in Snowdonia 9th Feb 2015 pt1

It is Monday morning , a week after my walk in the heavy snow fall in the Ogwen valley Snowdonia , but keeping a look on the web cams i have noticed most of the snow has gone , only the high areas still have a good covering.   The weather over the last four days has been very good for Temperature inversions ,so i am hoping to see one today, if i can climb high enough!      the Snowdon web cam is looking great, a good inversion with just the summit above the clouds :)  But the Ogwen cam is in thick cloud :(

So after driving down to Snowdonia and parking up near the Ogwen cottages in thick fog/cloud, i start my walk towards Y-Garn.  There is quite alot of ice on the path through the rock cutting but as i walk towards Cym Idwal patches of snow increase making easier going.

I am now at  the start of the Y-Garn track , its looking very gloomy and i just hope i can break through this cloud to see some views.

Full of anticipation i am climbing up into even thicker cloud ,  the snow cover is increasing now as i gain height and cant see anything around me now!

Time to put my micro spikes on now as the snow is quite thick here , but it is quite soft mostly making heavy going up the steps section.  its actually looking a bit brighter above me now with glimpses of the sun trying to break through the cloud.
another 15 mins of climbing and suddenly...............................

                        OMG!!!   Yay :D         WHAT A FIRST VIEW OF THE INVERSION!

                          Pen-yr-ole-wen rising majestically above the cloud in front of me.
                                                                view larger HERE

I am level with the top of the inversion  , i shoot 7 portrait frames to stitch together to make this panorama of Pen-yr and Tryfan over to the right.    view larger HERE

                                        Climbing above the Inversion now ,its a glorious sight :)

          Sitting in the sun watching the clouds move around in front of me  , its quite warm up here :)

 

                                             Heading up higher now towards the summit.

Stopping frequently for photographic breaks  , the views are amazing,  Cym Idwal and the Devils Kitchen are down there in the cloud , Tryfan over to the left and the Glyders around to the right.

   Y-Garn summit is in view ,  left of the sharp point on the right of this image, that's the steepest section to negotiate.

      Another photo break just above Llym Clyd which is a small lake down below the summit . the Inversion is starting to break up now as i can almost see down to Llyn Ogwen to the right of Pen-yr.

                                                   Onwards and upwards as they say :)    
                      steep off the path but not too bad in the deep snow on the main path.

The path follows this ridge straight up to the top plateau where i will be able to see the  Snowdon Massif  hopefully surrounded by the Inversion.

        Looking down to Tryfan , the cloud base is dropping now as it disperses with the suns warmth .

                                                The final long climb to the Plateau.........

                                                         Love this image with the rocks :)

                                                            almost a Batman shadow :D

  The summit is in sight , up this steep scramble and then a short walk along the plateau to the small stone shelter on the summit.

A view down Ogwen valley as the cloud clears , can see miles now :)  Llyn Idwal and  Ogwen are now visible with Llyn Clyd covered in ice/snow directly below me to the right.

                         Almost to the top now , the deep snow is giving good footholds here .

I have reached the top plateau ,The first view i get of Snowdon massif surrounded by cloud,what an amazing view :D

Looking towards Anglesey, only the Menai straits are visible where the inversion has dropped into the warmer channel.  wow!    i will take a better image with long lens later .

                    Sitting in the sun just watching the cloud swirling around between the peaks :)
                            It doesn't get much better than this up in the mountains, what a day.

                                   Just a short walk up to the summit now at 3107ft altitude .

                                                                  View from the summit :)
                                                 Tryfan and the Glyderau clear of the cloud now.

                                                                   View Large HERE

                                                                      Continued in pt2