The plan had been to take on the Carneddau, but with the wind speeds forecast to be too strong, I instead led a hike up Rhinog Fach, where we'd be able to avoid higher altitudes for much longer and stay a bit more sheltered from the weather. That was the case and most of the walk, while wet, was enjoyable and manageable. However as we began our ascent onto the mountain, the weather turned as a convective shower came barrelling onto the shore. As soon as I saw it I radioed to the team to raise my concern, and looking out at it it became clear that it was approaching too fast for us to escape it. As it got nearer and the wind speed increased to levels that made it difficult to stand, we made the decision to climb over the wall and hide from it. I had my anemometer with me and recorded a gust of 63.3 mph. Very close to the highest speed I've ever recorded. Armed with hail and large raindrops, on a rocky mountain slope made this one feel very aggressive indeed.
We decided to turn back once the winds had calmed a little, and descended in the shelter of the wall. Once back down at the tarn, the wind was calm once more and the summit looked sunny and clear. Thankfully we weren't deceived into climbing again as on the way back we were pelted with massive hailstones and strong winds once again, something that would have been really serious had it caught us on the top where there was no shelter at all.
On the way down I also found what I believe to be lingonberries, which I have never seen in Britain before, and we had an exciting encounter with a wild mountain goat with tremendous horns.
This video summarises the whole incident:
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