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To some being asked to skip the drudgery of a day in the office and go to Snowdonia to get some images of sleeping bags may seem like a brilliant opportunity of a jolly out in the snow. We at Criterion are no exception to this and Daniel and myself were buzzing down the M56 en route to Glyder Fach before the MD could have a rethink.
Reassured by numerous “reputable” weather outlets that a clear sunny day was in prospect after snow the previous night we were in good spirits, even after sitting in traffic for the best part of an hour outside of Warrington we were still in good spirits, we weren’t in the office! We had a chance to get some images of our Expedition range sleeping bags in a snowy environment with some great views of mountains in the background.
I won’t lie arriving in Snowdonia and seeing the peaks shrouded in mist was a bit of a dampener, but the summit weather forecast was set for clear skies. So, we assumed how wrong we were, by the time we get to the top the cloud will have burnt off and so will the light rain which was getting stronger all the time as we traipsed like pack mules with loads of kit upwards to the shrowded snow line.
Two or so hours or maybe it was days later, we reached the snow line. A panorama of untouched white snow ideal for photographing cold weather sleeping bags or it would have been had we been able to see it. Unfortunately, the view which I allude was covered by a mist so dense it could have auditioned for being an extra in a Jack the Ripper movie. And let’s not forget the rain, which was as persistent and annoying as fat kid whining for chocolate!
But were we defeated? No of course not, like a pair of idiots we decided, despite the evidence, that the weather forecast may still be right and even if the mist didn’t lift we would still be able to get some etheral shots!
Did the weather get better? I can feel you want to ask… well, of course, it bloody well didn’t, it got worse! What a daft question its the U.K.! Finally arriving after at what seemed like a suitable point with a mixture of snow and rocks.
We set a tent up, well Daniel did as I couldn’t feel my hands, which was a bit of a problem as my role in the expedition was to photograph it (note to self buy waterproof gloves). However the problems with my hands wern’t that important as my camera a weather sealed Canon 7D MKii decided almost instantly to let water in pretty soon both camera and lens were water damaged and it became impossible to take any images as although the rain was misty the wind increased its ‘camera lethaility’! My back up sports camera which was going to be used for some video lost all of its charge in the walk up the hill.
