In attendance: Lester Payne, Mark Ashley, Alan Jones, Dan Creber, Duncan Lee, Trish Cranston, Julie O'Regan, Jenny Varley, Al Metelko and Scott Sadler.

"The only member young and stupid enough to run a welsh ice climbing meet" These were the words of Duncan when he read my entry into the meets calendar before the winter had even started. If you ask me, if you want a good winter season, all you need is blind optimism!

After listening to most people's negative thoughts of rain and warm weather, I was very pleased when 9 hopefuls turned up for the meet. The weekend turned out to be fine and dry with plenty of warm sunshine, but we didn't all care for that.

Myself, Duncan, Julie, Al and Jenny headed up to the cold shade of the Black ladders. We weren't very hopeful walking in wearing T-shirts but when we entered the shadows we could see a few strips of ice on the lower part of the cliffs. The ice wasn't perfect but it was good enough to string a couple of pitches together and declare the meet a success. Being the meet leader, it was my duty to put up a rope so that Julie and Jenny could both complete their first ever ice climbs with ease.

Lester, Mark, Trish, Alan and Dan headed off to Snowdon and completed a traverse of Crib goch, descending Y gribin ridge to join the miners track back down to Pen y pas.

Thanks to all who attended for a great weekend and I look forward to next year when I hope to see even more optimist's heading to Wales for ice.

Clear blue sky and cold crisp air. Miles of snow covered ridges and hillsides without a single footprint. Hundreds of meters of perfect white ice and gullies packed full of hard Neve without another climber to be seen. Welsh winters are not usually this perfect. What's going on?? Your question is answered by the sound of snoring and rain on the skylight! Welsh winter weekends are not that difficult to predict, but on the other hand, you never know? If you fancy trying your luck then give me a call or just turn up.