The Screen is a grade IV, 4 ice route in Cwm Idwal, and on Friday last week it was in condition, albeit a wet condition. The nicely sheltered first belay provided me with a lovely spot to watch Brannock's antics on the rather spectactular looking cliff above. I hadn't realised quite how steep the ice was until I was trying to perch on it to remove screws while the route dripped around me. No slips, but it's fair to say I'm in no hurry to lead grade IV. After that, I inefficiently led the first pitch of The Ramp (III,3) over the course of about a week and a half (at least that's how long it felt like it took), and John took over for the harder pitch above. Anyway, I've departed from the norm here and made a video instead of including photos. Enjoy!
If the embedded video above isn't working for any reason, you can view the video directly on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/haydnwilliams/shortwalk
As the contents of the cwm melted around us on the walk back to the car, we quickly considered our options and decided to make a dash home. We weren't, however, aware of the severe weather warnings which had been issued for snow, and so the journey took seven and a half hours instead of three. Nevertheless, we kept ourselves amused by using snow chains in Stoke and did eventually make it back to Burton. Most exciting.
