North Wales, February 14th to 16th

By Mike Hams – February 2003

Another rapid and remarkably traffic-free trip along the M6 on
Friday saw us in North Wales in 5 hours and looking for the
bunkhouse under Tryfan. The first farmyard we turned up in wasn’t
it but the name was remarkably similar (apologies to the Welsh
amongst us). The second farmyard had Rupert’s car in it and we
noticed there was still some snow about on the upper slopes of the
surrounding mountains.

The bunkhouse was clean, tidy, warm and well equipped; I didn’t
really need to pack the wok. This year’s bargain (so far) at £6 a
night. We had a quick drink and settled down for the night.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, which was unfortunate
for those who wanted to ice climb. They had to search quite hard
on the North-facing slopes to find anything remotely climbable.
Those of us who were walking looked forward to clear views from
the mountaintops. We packed ice axes and crampons just in case
they were needed and set off up Tryfan but a short walk away.

A great deal of first class dithering was required to find the
start of the scramble, mainly by those holding a map, then it was
up and away. After a good mornings work we arrived at the summit
and both the secretary and president of the club did the
obligatory leap from Adam to Eve and back again, ensuring they had
“droite de seigneur” with any and all passing sheep! We had a
short break for lunch at the summit and set off again when the
smaller members of the party complained of being cold.

The afternoon was taken up with the scramble off Tryfan to Bristli
ridge (can’t find the correct spelling on the map) and the ascent
of the Glyders (Fawr and Fach). Some interesting positions and
moves were required on the way up, notably the standing aside for
a chap with his two collies going up past us! One of the dogs did
not appear too keen and had to be coaxed into every difficult
move, I knew exactly how it felt! We stopped for a photo or two on
the cantilevered boulder on top of the Glyders and decided that
there was not time before the light went to get to and through the
Devils kitchen area (some mention of carrot eating and seeing in
the dark). We made our way down Y Cribin and returned around
Tryfan to the bunkhouse. A very good 8-hour day out.

We settled down to dinner and a drink or two and swapped tales of
the day. Those who wanted them had hot showers in the washhouse
and sweaty clothing was hung in the drying room to make them
usable the next day. Jeff and Nigel arrived back just before we
considered alerting mountain rescue. Apparently they had wanted to
be out after dark to make the most of night navigation (I hope I
remember that aright chaps). Plans for the next day were made to
take account of the great weather.

On Sunday our party set of for Pen Y Pass for an attempt on the
Snowdon Horseshoe starting at Crib Goch. On the hike into the
hills my knee let me know it was not happy with life, and could we
take it easier today please. At the foot of the scramble I waved
goodbye to my companions and set off for the Pyg Track. I was to
meet the others on Snowdon and complete the last half of the
horseshoe with them. We had discarded ice axes, as they were an
unnecessary burden the previous day most of us had left the
crampons behind also to reduce weight in the packs.

It was another very sunny day and half way up the track I removed
my jacket and completed the climb in base layer and Paramo
trousers (all vents open and struggling manfully to keep me cool).
I tagged on with a chap from Liverpool who was good company on the
climb. We eventually parted company on the top section of the
track when we had to stop for people coming down and I got caught
up on the hard snow without my crampons. It’s not often just a
base layer can be worn as a top when using crampons. The snow was
about 10 inches deep and very hard packed across two thirds of the
track width.

On the top of the hill and out of the valley shelter I had to put
my jacket on sharpish, as it was very chilly. There were the usual
day-trippers in unsuitable clothing on top of the mountain and in
summertime I guess it must be very, very busy. I had some lunch
and waited for the rest of the intrepid party to arrive, which
they did after 25 minutes or so. We moved off the mountain summit
to find somewhere quieter for the others to eat, descending a very
nasty scree slope to a quiet grassy hollow for a congenial lunch.

The President of the club did his best at this point to frighten
all the local wildlife and not a few walkers with an extraordinary
belch. Birds crossed the sky in terror and the gentleman walking
around us staggered off pale-faced and trembling. The rest of us
hoped the earth would open and hide us now (not, well maybe
Christina as she is a delicate thing really). We’ll go back later
to apologise if asked.

The slog around the last part of the horseshoe went well and we
arrived back in the car park shortly after 4pm. It was time for a
quick change and off to the Pinnacle cafe at Capel Curig for a
well earned bacon roll and a cuppa. Here we learned that Steve
Culverhouse had nearly come a cropper on easy ground above a
1000-foot slide at Idwal Slabs. Rupert had managed to arrest the
slide before it got out of hand and avoided burying any part of
the ice axes he was holding in Steve. The only bad part of the
return trip was the discovery that the good chip shop in
Llangollen had closed and we had Chinese instead in Oswestry.

More pictures can be found at Tryfan Scramble (password Climb8)