Llanberis - Chester MC Hut - Nov 2025
Meet report by Bernie Ingrams
Our usual late November meet to the Chester MC hut Pen Ceunant Uchaf (PCU), just above Llanberis, Snowdonia or Eyriri as it’s now known. On past meets there we frequently have had winter conditions, and this was the case this year, caused by a weather phenomenon called the “Pembrokeshire Dangler”. No, it’s not a naked Welshman lurking around the countryside, but a weather convergence zone. Honest!
As per norm, the MWIS weather forecast for the weekend was looking rather wet and windy!
Saturday
Karsten set off first to catch the 09:10 bus to Capel Curig, where he planned to walk over Y Foel Goch, The Glyders, Y Garn and maybe Elidir Fawr, before descending down to the Llanberis pass.
Next off were Richard, Teresa, Fritha and Huw for an ascent of Snowdon. There was heavy rain lower down and a white-out on top.
Tucking in at Pete’s Eats
Bernie, Bob, Peter, Ray and Dezso were last to depart sometime mid-morning. Dry at first, so we went on a low level walk, however the rain soon set in, so we rapidly descended to Llanberis to try out the new Pete’s Eats. Pete’s Eats, after it closed down had a brief unsuccessful short spell as a Mexican restaurant, but has recently reopened and gone upmarket, with a new stone clad outside (no longer the dark blue paint job), a redesigned interior, even featuring a bar and a different menu according to which day of the week it is. Pints of tea can still be had in new Pete’s Eats mugs, but no longer chip, bacon or sausage butties. They even serve smashed avocado now, which pleased Peter no end, even though he didn’t try one and instead went for the Turkish Eggs. To quote “an upmarket (for Llanberis) bistro rather than a climbers greasy spoon cafe”. Coincidentally, there was a review of Pete’s Eats in The Guardian on the very same day that we were dining there. Don’t go for the Full Welsh Breakfast, unless you are very hungry, as it is quite large (mention no names)! However nowhere near as large as a “Big Jim” * used to be. For a wet day the cafe was quite busy.
The Pete’s Eats team arrived back at the hut early to mid-afternoon, not even bothering to go gear shopping as it was still raining heavily. The Pen-y-Ceunant Isaf aka The Snowdon Café (Stefan’s) was unusually closed, so no stopping off there either for a quick (or long) one and a chat with Stefan and to eat some of his cake.
Richard, Teresa, Fritha and Huw arrived back at the hut later on, very wet, but having had a good challenging day out in the conditions.
Karsten eventually arrived back at the hut around 6 pm, also very wet. He had to give up his planned route part way round due to the challenging conditions as he couldn’t make out the footpaths in the snowy weather. After the Glyders, he descended via the Devils Kitchen and then down to Idwal and Ogwyn, where he managed to first hitch a lift to Capel Curig and then catch the Sherpa bus back to Llanberis.
Seven of us enjoyed a communal evening meal of chili and rice prepared by Richard and Teresa.
There was lots of rain and wind outside in the evening. Huw had to move bunks as the Velux roof window above him was dripping.
Sunday
Bernie and his brand new microspikes
A much better weather day, with less wind and even the low and weak winter sun being seen at times.
Richard, Teresa, Fritha and Huw drove round to the Ogwyn valley to do an ascent of Tryfan. They started up and got as far as the snow line where they meet some other people descending that had abandoned their ascent due to the conditions. It was also raining, so they turned back as well and instead drove round back to Llanberis and to Pete’s Eats.
[They should have stayed in the Llanberis Pass instead for some much better weather!]
Karsten set off on his own to ascend Snowdon by the Llanberis path.
Winter conditions up on Snowdon at the finger stone
Bernie, Peter and Bob set off a little bit later after Karsten, to also ascend Snowdon. On the way up, a local walked past us, doing his daily ascent of Snowdon! Ascending to Clogwyn Station it started getting snowy, and after we passed underneath the railway line (circa 2,500 ft.) it turned very wintery. Bernie christened his micro-spikes with their first outing and Peter put his crampons on. Bob didn’t want to push himself (or rather his heart) too much, so he turned back there and descended. From then on it was in the cloud and very snowy and icy in places. After a short time we bumped into Karsten descending from the summit. Lots of people up the hill as usual, including several in shorts, mainly but not all were fell runners! We met a few people who had come up from Pen-y-Pass via the zig-zags to the finger stone, who choose not to descend them as it was so icy/slippery. Instead they descended the tourist path to Llanberis and then caught the bus back up to Pen-y-Pass. After the nice weather lower down, we had a bit of a wintery shower or two of sleet/snow ascending. No views at all at the summit, and the north side of the summit cairn was coated in water ice. The winter sun reappeared as we descended lower down, which gave some nice views.
Views on the descent from Snowdon
Dezso departed early to meet some friends in Birmingham.
Ray also departed early as he has something on.
Unusually, just 3 people (Bernie, Peter and Bob) stayed on at the hut for the Sunday night.
Monday
More heavy rain and very strong winds (the forecast was for 50 to 60 mph)!
We departed mid-morning, after giving the hut a good tidy-up and clean. People need to check carefully that they have everything with them when they depart at the end of a meet, as we found 2 mobile phone chargers, 2 cans of beer, 2 bottles of beer, a box of nuts (the edible kind, not climbing ones) and a power-bank. Owners have since been found for most of the left behind items.
There was lots of standing water and lare puddles driving home. Also lots of white water on the hillsides and in the streams and rivers.
I learnt later on Tuesday from the Yr Wydffa Ground Conditions report https://eryri.gov.wales/visit/snowdon/yr-wyddfa-ground-conditions-reports, that most of the snow and ice that we had at the weekend had since melted and been washed away.
*
I have been reliably informed that when we return to the Chester hut in 12 months’ time there should definitely be a new drying room (in the new wooden shed round the back) and a second shower where the existing drying room is.
The Chester hut has been booked again for the end of November 2026.
Roll Call
Karsten Richter (ML)
Bernie Ingrams
Ray Hancock
Dezso Hajdu
Bob Johnston
Peter Thompson
Fritha Winton
Richard Green
Teresa O’Regan
Huw Kealy (guest/prospective new member)
John Baily was down to join us, but unfortunately couldn’t as he had caught Covid.
Helen was also due to go on the meet, but instead she was preparing at the weekend for a job interview on the Monday.
Unfortunately, due to people’s different locations and departure times, we ended up by using 6 cars at the weekend, which environmentally wasn’t so good.
* A “Big Jim” was named after the climber Jimmy Jewell in his honour. The story goes that Jimmy wandered into Pete’s one day and asked for a "full breakfast", the staff misunderstood his Birmingham accent, thinking that he had asked for "four breakfasts". Jewell ate the resulting order.
“Jewell featured in Total Control, a video of classic 1980s UK climbing made by Alun Hughes, who filmed him climbing Left Wall (E2 5C) at Dinas Cromlech, and for the purposes of the film, Jewell free soloed the route six times, amounting to 800 ft of solo climbing”
By the way, when I started climbing back in the 1970s, Pete’s Eats didn’t exist. Wendys Café was the café in Llanberis where all the famous climbers of that era went – Pete Crew, Al Harris, et al.