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Weekends : Scrambling in Wales

I always look forward to leaving London for the mountains so when our planned climbing trip to the Italian Dolomites was postponed a quick scrambling trip to Wales was substituted.

Once we were out of the usual M25 mayhem (biggest car park in the world?) our trip up to Snowdonia National Park was stress free. The soul-sapping stress of office life faded with the city lights in the rear view mirror and the mountainous skyline raced to meet us. Our thoughts turned from scaling piles of paperwork and the newest budget figures to scaling ridge lines and contours up Crib Goch, Tryfan's North Ridge and Bristly Ridge.

Arriving at 1:00am at Garths Farm we speedily put up the fly sheet, unrolled our Ther-A-Rest's and sleeping bags and within minutes were dreaming of the next days outing... and being eaten alive by the inevitable gnats!

CRIB GOCH
Our sheep dropping filled campsite/field proved unexpectedly comfortable so the proposed 6:30am start was delayed and we rolled into the Pen-y-pass car park at 8:15 and luckily grabbed the last parking space. After packing personal paraphanalia we headed out into the mist up the Pyg Track and were soon picking our way up the Crib Goch route towards Snowdon's summit.

The mist we encountered on the route brought both comfort and uncertainty... comfort as we could not see the 1000 foot chasm that would surely welcome us if we slipped, and uncertainty as we could not see more than 10m forward for our advance up the ridge (or behind for our retreat!)

Our sure-footedness prevailed and we soon found ourselves strolling up parrallel to the railway track towards Snowdon Cafe for our summit snap (with fellow summitter Lizzie!) and a welcome cup of hot chocolate!

Footnote: Never let it be said that navigating in the mist is easy. Our return to the car park that was meant to be via Y Lliwedd on the Snowdon Horseshoe route but we missed the path (did I mention the viz was only 5m?) and managed to trundle along the wrong ridge line before realizing our error and dropping down to the Watkin Path trailhead and hitching a ride 8km back to our car!

After a great beer and lunch at Pen Y Gwryd Hotel (favourite post training watering hole of Hillary and Hunt's succesful Everest team) and a refreshing dip under the watefall we squeezed on our climbing shoes for an afternoon of bouldering on the huge rocks littering the slopes.

The evenings feed and "amber nectar" was obtained at the excellent Bryn Tyrch Hotel before hitting the sack (and bugs) early for more timely start up Tryfan the next day.

TRYFAN'S NORTH RIDGE
The early night paid off and by 7:00am we were at the lay-by with our bags packed and ready to start our assualt up the North Ridge! The sun had burnt off all the early morning mist and by 8:00am we were sitting shirtless on "The Canon" on Tryfans north west ridge. This was the half way point of the scramble and above us lay 300-400m of some of the best grade one scrambling to be found in Britain before we could stand on top of "Adam & Eve" and bath in the summitting glory that was to be ours!

After our triumphant leap between "Adam & Eve" we set off down the south ridge towards Bwlch Tryfan and then up the "Bristly Ridge" to Glyder Fach.
This was where things got interesting... we were following a pretty tough line up to the pinnacles when the mist came rolling in and our visiblilty was once again reduced dramatically. With our route downward just as invisible as the route upward we decided to press on and after another 30 minutes of all consuming scrambling we were on top of the summit plateau and had a short walk past the "Cantilever" to the summit of Glyder Fach.

The descent saw us passing the (Castle of the wind) before descending back to the car and with an renewed appetite drove back to the Bryn Tyrch Hotel for one more Castle Eden Ale and a great lamb burger...

Driving back to London, the ridges and mountains of Snowdonia fought to remain high and jagged on the horizon but soon succumbed to distance and dusk and flat-lined... We were home.