Caer Caradoc \ The Lawley nr Church Stretton.
The overnight forecast had hinted that there would be more snow towards South Shropshire so I decided to hear over to Church Stretton in the hope that some of the gullies on leeward side of Caer Caradoc might have filled in.
It’s pretty straight forward to check the gullies using field glasses from the A49 but it didn’t look good. However The Lawley had possibilities so I parked up on the road and had a quick look up the access path for the hill.
The ground looked a bit bare compared to previous years but the windward side of Caradoc hinted that snow had filled in some of the shallow depressions offering the possibility of some skiable lines.
On walking up it was obvious that the ridge line had caught some drifting snow and the locals were already testing the snow pack stability with kids & sledges. After checking the gullies again from the top (very bare) I skied the ridge line to the half way mark and traversed across to get at the more tempting lines where the snow had filled in lower down.
These gave some nice skiing in comparison to the ridge in heavy snow, ended prematurely by the fence.
A traverse & walk got me back to the car which I only just managed to extract from where I’d parked. It was still early afternoon so I thought I’d try the Lawley and have a look see. I’d forgotten how much hard it is to walk up with all the kit and the Lawley’s taunting with false summit after false summit.
The lines by Peter(?) a Snow Boarder I met and myself. Not the easiest skiing in the world !!! A hard frost and a few more inches and it would be perfect…