Mike Raine

Mountaineering instructor and author of Nature of Snowdonia

Mike has been leading in the hills since the 1970s, and specialises in helping mountain leaders and mountaineering instructors to understand and appreciate nature in the hills. Here he tells us some of the ways climate change has affected hillwalking in North Wales. mikeraine.co.uk

“In the 1980s it was unusual to not get some winter climbing done in Snowdonia. It started to change in the 1990s and became less frequent. The noughties were hopeless, then 2010 came and was just exceptional, but sadly it hasn’t been since. Good winters seem to be getting fewer and further between.

“There was a time when I would have said you’d be silly to come to Snowdonia in November because it really is the wet season. But you’ve only got to look across Facebook and Instagram to see amazing images from November. A lot of new independent providers will now run Summer Mountain Leader training courses all year round.

“We get extreme events, like stormy weather, more frequently. That has an adverse impact on footpaths, because rather than steady rain you get intense rain and the subsequent run-off, which increases erosion. Some of the tracks we would have ridden for mountain biking 5-10 years ago we don’t ride now because they’re so washed away.

“There are also extended periods of very dry weather. We had about ten weeks without rain in April-May 2020, which was bizarre, and that’s happening more. One adverse effect is an increase in landslides, which in the last couple of years have become more visible. You see fresh landslides down the Nant Ffrancon now, and you wouldn’t have noticed that even two or three years ago.”