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 (click on image to view in 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.