Typical conditions in Great Gully (shamelessly taken from Flickr)
Mid-summer came and with it a prolonged spell of hot, dry weather. As to near to perfect conditions for another attempt at Great Gully on Craig yr Ysfa as we were likely to get. [Click here to read an account of the first attempt - Ed]
I teamed up with Andy Hansler whilst Mervyn teamed up with Adrian. We got a reasonably early start and by 11.30 we were at the bottom of the route, fed, geared up and ready to go. We scrambled the first 150 feet or so and roped up for the first rock step. This was quickly surmounted and all went well with the following pitches, including the pitch that stopped us on our first attempt.
As the day wore on the weather slowly deteriorated becoming cloudier with occasional light rain. This wasn’t a problem until the penultimate pitch up a steep, polished chimney. I led it in the dry but a little while later when Adrian was leading it had become a bit wet and a top rope had to be dropped. So, we ended up at about 5.30 with all four of us 8 pitches up, facing the crux Great Cave pitch with slowly worsening weather. Hmm, this is beginning to sound like an epic in the making.
Typical conditions in Great Gully (shamelessly taken from Flickr)
The way up wasn’t exactly obvious and we spoke about retreating but decided continuing up would be quicker overall. Taking a few steps into the dark recesses of the cave showed a line of sloping and nearly dry holds up the wall, leading up to a chockstone and a traverse out to the cave mouth. Handily, there was also a rope loop and other tat for protection.
I stepped up to the holds and clipped the rope loop and tat but almost immediately wondered where the handholds were. Nothing for it but to pull on the gear. Now where do I put my feet? This was repeated several times, falling off each time. By removing my rucksack I was better balanced and able to place a nut and clip a sling for aiding on. It was a precarious position but it gained enough height to place a higher sling and somehow wriggle, squirm and thrutch until I was sitting on top of the chockstone, panting like a steam train.
I sat for a few minutes, regaining my breath and composure before tackling the traverse to the cave mouth. The footholds were large and obvious but it required a squat to get under an overhang. Would there be protection? What were the handholds like? As it turned out the hand holds were good enough but there was no protection, so it was very much a test of nerve. I’d soon squirmed onto another chockstone at the cave mouth and into howling wind and blowing rain. Brighter and really rather better than the confines of the cave. I was soon anchored and ready to bring Andy up. Using much the same combined tactics, but with extra swearing, Andy soon joined me on the belay.
Having only clipped one rope, Andy was able to clip the other and so protect Mervyn’s ascent. And so I brought up Mervyn with much huffing and puffing and a certain amount of swearing, leaving only Adrian and my rucksack to be brought up before we could scramble out to the top. Adrian looked at the now glistening holds and gave it a bit of ’What the hell do I do here?’ Gear pulling and aiding soon commenced but whilst pulling hard on the sling around the chockstone, the sling slipped and Adrian let go, banging into the cave wall before ending up dangling on the rope.
At this point Adrian felt unable to make another go at the pitch. Oh bugger. We pulled up the rucksacks before rigging the ropes to attempt an assisted hoist, but with ropes running over rock there was too much friction for that to work. And despite having succeeded at prussiking in the past, Adrian was unable to do so now, when it really, really mattered. Double bugger. By now it was something like 7.30 and the weather was getting worse, the cloud having dropped to below the top of the mountain. We had earlier discussed calling mountain rescue but now there was no choice. Mervyn scrambled up to the top of the gully and made the call. Thank goodness for mobile phones! It was then a waiting game. There were several calls back to say ‘We’re dealing with it’, then ‘We’re 2.5 hours away’ and finally ‘We’re 10 or 15 minutes away’. Having spent most of the intervening time on the belay when the last call came through I decided it was time for me to pack up and scramble out. With a shove from Andy over a difficult section I was on the top and could hear Mervyn shouting ‘Over here, over here’ but with no light he couldn’t guide them in. Fortunately, I did have a headtorch and in a few minutes the first of the rescue party were with us. Unfortunately, this left Andy a few feet from the top of the gully unable to overcome the step that he had helped both Mervyn and me to get over. Had there been a few more minutes before the rescue party arrived, I’m sure we would have found an anchor and dropped a rope to get Andy to the top.
They quickly took over getting Mervyn and me into a more sheltered position. They soon established that there were 2 still in the gully before bundling us into a bothy shelter. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could whilst outside there was much talking and flashing of lights. At some point, Mervyn’s mobile rings and lo and behold it’s Martin Hore on the other end, asking after us. A few minutes later, someone pops their head into the bothy and introduces themselves with a cheery ‘Hello, my name’s Chris and I’ll be taking you down shortly. In the meantime, here’s a flask of coffee.’
Whilst we were reasonably comfortable in the bothy shelter the rescue team set up to extract Andy and Adrian. Andy was just a few feet from top and was soon with us. The three of us were then walked down to the road, loaded in a Landrover and driven to the MR base close to the foot of Tryfan. No idea what time we arrived there, maybe 1am. At the MR base we were loaned dry clothes, fed with soup, bread and bacon butties and plied with all the tea we could drink.
We worked out from conversations and descriptions that the team on the mountain set up a pulley system and lowered a man down to Adrian before hauling both of them out. Some of the team returned about 2.30 – 3am, and then a dishevelled Adrian walked in with the remaining team members at about 3.30am. We finally left the MR base at about 4.30am, were dropped off at the car before getting back to the campsite around 4.45am.
I really couldn’t recommend the route, although I understand Andy is keen for another attempt.
The final word must go the Ogwen Valley MR team who were fantastic with 15 of them giving up their Saturday night to rescue us. A donation from all four of us was subsequently made to help them continue to provide their service.
So what could we have done differently? Well, given that the weather was forecast to deteriorate during the afternoon we could have decided to leave Great Gully for another day. Having got to the crux in deteriorating conditions we could all have abseiled down rather than go on. Similarly, having got into difficulty, we could all have abseiled down and walked out. Alternatively, we could have tied loops into another rope, tied it off to an anchor and dropped it to Adrian for him to try aiding up. Quite why we didn’t think of these options at the time, I really don’t know.
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