Some pics from a walk on Dec 24th.

Saw four or five people on top and another four on descent who were the only ones other than the two of us to have ascended the Ranger today (unless they set off after 2pm). There was even a mountain biker on the summit.

Virgin Snow

I asked the guys who actually work in Hafod Eryri tonight what time it's meant to be open till...

The last train is the official line - so there... Seems the Beeb were fed some bad information...

I don't think anyone missed the point last week that Hafod Eryri, the new 'caff' on top of Yr Wyddfa has now opened. The highlight of that was definitely the fact that Our Rhods walked up rather than taking the train. Lowlights were the mangling of Hafod Eryri by the local news presenters(seriously, how difficult can it be?)

One worrying point is that I've seen in many places (including the BBC) that the caff is open till 8pm. Well - it's not. I was up Tuesday night and I'd apparently just missed it according to some friends I bumped into up there. They'd only managed to get served out of protest. Fair enough I suppose, we were well stocked anyway. One of them works for the National Park Authority, and wasn't happy that times given on their site meant that it should have been open till half seven.

Tonight, the same again. It was shut at half six - probably due to it being too windy for the train. Me - I'm not bothered, but there was a guy up there with his daughter who was assured from some source or other (and probably a reputable one!) it would be open. They weren't quite desperate, but were definitely annoyed!

I think that with the millions thrown at the new building, people might have a higher expectation that it will be open, especially in light of pretty high profile sites stating it is. So the correct information really has to be out there and easily obtained - or we're going to keep on getting people walking up in winter depending on the caff being open when they get there.

TBH, I'm not bothered about anything other than a coffee as, according to their website they have chosen to sell 'Village' pies and pastries. I've had the misfortune of their products in the past, and I personally don't rate them. Worse is that they seem to be the only pastry available in most shops when you want to buy something quick for a walk. I think I'm going to put a comparison of them on here with some real bakery products and other mass produced ones - though I might get someone else to do the taste test! Unplanned rant over, but my stomach never forgives...