Fourth time lucky.
An early start and the roads are snow and ice free, the first time there was too much snow, the second time too much ice and fog, third time crashed the car, so it was looking good for a bit of success.
I parked on the horseshoe pass itself, and walked along the south side of Moel y faen and then up to Gribin Oernant, then I was on the main path along the Llantisilio mountains.
It should have been a good path, but it gets really steep sometimes, and in the icey conditions quite dangerous, along the path were mini glaciers angled at forty five degrees on the mountain sides, now that was really quite dangerous.
The barrow at the top is big, and has big views across more than half of north wales, I stood on top and gazed out at the world as the freezing wind gusted into my face taking out a filling in the process ( not really) I laughed at the absurdity of it all, here I was, on the edge of existence, the meaning of life perhaps just round the next corner, then in a few short hours I would be at school picking up the kids, and the whole morning will be just a memory,
fading like tears in the rain.
Untill the next time.
A day off work often sees me dissapearing into the Welsh wilderness, a bit of snow wasnt going to put me off so at about 10.30 am I turned off the snowcleared main road and made my way onto the horseshoe pass.
The radio mentioned closed roads in the Peak district but nothing close by, with much lip biting and wheel spinning I gave it a go. Just a hundred metres shy of the restaurant/shop/carpark I could go no more, maybe I couldve struggled on at half a mile an hour, i'll never know because infront of me reversing towards me came a big 4x4 with tow rope ready, after some general piss taking they towed me to the crest of the hill, and there the car was going to stay whilst I climbed the modest hill. So far not so good .
Equipped for any type of weather, I strode forward like someone who rarely fails, I would have made it too if it weren't for those pesky snow drifts, with every footfall my booted feet sank all the way to my knees, it was more tiring than any other kind of walking, my breathing got hard, my chest hurt, all I could do was try and make it to the big stone I could see further up the hill, only it wasn't a stone , and like the straw that broke the reindeers back it was actually an igloo, three of them, igloos ? in Llangolen ? I'm not going to make it this time, I took a few arctic photos and turned back, after not even getting a quarter of the way. It was easier getting back down than getting up. I'm off work next week maybe another attempt with slightly less snow will afford some success.
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