Conditions report- pen y fan 26/11/10
Been up pen y fan for a walk and explore around the n.face to see how things are shaping up this morning. Snow is thin on the ground at the base of the path from the resevoir car park but about half way up water is starting to freeze. Lots of blown snow and on the plateau at the top the north westerly slopes are scouring with small deposits in the lee. Patchy semi frozen turf above about 700m but nothing of note.
Summit is scoured with reasonbly substantial deposits in the path down to storey arms and descnt route to north face.
Gully lines have got reasonable accumulations but will need another week or so of cold temps for the ice steps to form and some freeze thaw for any level of consolidation. Please don't climb at the moment as the turf is definitely not froZen enough but may be coming into marginal condition towards the middle of the coming week.
Headwall routes are freezing up nicely with small amount of rime building up and iced up cracks. Some of the tougher grade 4/5 crack lines will go for adventurous mixed climbers. I had a cheeky solo on the right hand crack which is holding a hook well and the rock is frozen enough to torque.
All in all, looking promising but aside from the headwall will need a few mire days before climbing for the turf an ice steps to freeze and/or snow consolidate.
Couple photos to follow later.
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