Finding Winter in Snowdonia

The days are warming up, the spring rains are here, and the daffodils and crocuses are blooming. We didn't get much for winter--only a couple of snowfalls that stayed on the ground--so this past week I decided to go looking for winter.

I found it on the top of a mountain in Wales.

Actually, I got invited to go hiking with a few men from our church--finding winter was a bonus. We left first thing in the morning and spent the better part of the day hiking up Moel Siabod, a mountain in the north of Snowdonia National Park. The feel of this area was very different from the Midlands or anywhere else we've been in England--a sparsely populated, stark beauty that reminded me of the foothills nestled up against the Rockies in southwestern Alberta.

Of course, the pictures one gets from scenery like this can never do justice to the view, but here are a few pics from this adventure: looking out toward Capel Curig about halfway up the mountain (pic 1); near the top, with the frozen snow and ice formations on the boulders in the foreground, looking out toward Snowdon, the tallest mountain in Wales (pic 2); and at the summit, looking over a forested valley and a raven in flight--and if you look carefully below the raven you can also see a white military jet plane that was flying below us in the valleys (pic 3).

All in all, an exhilarating (and exhausting) day!