Climbers face ancient curse of wintry weather (4,5)

'wintry weather' is the definition.
'cold spell' can be an answer for 'weather' (cold spell is a kind of weather). I'm not sure about the 'wintry' bit.

'climbers face ancient curse' is the wordplay.
'face' suggests taking the first letters.
'ancient' becomes 'old' (similar in meaning).
'curse' becomes 'spell' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letter of 'climbers' is 'c'.
'c'+'old'+'spell'='COLD SPELL'

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?