UK Mountains Expedition Report

I have been to Snowdonia many times for many different reasons with many different clients. This last trip, however, stands out above all the others for one simple reason; there was not a cloud in the sky all weekend and the views were consistently amazing. It has been many years since I have seen the view from Snowdon itself or indeed the Glyders, they are both normally in cloud. I found myself gazing at Glyder Fawr from Glyder Fach wondering which mountain it was! Y-Garn stood out, as did Snowdon, the Carnedds and we could see as far as the coast with ease.

The weekend started when I met my clients at the campsite in Betwys-y-Coed on Friday evening. After pitching tents, we wandered into town for dinner and a discussion and safety briefing for the weekend ahead.

Saturday morning saw us driving down the Llanberis pass to park near the Cromlech bridge which would be the start of the days outing. We planned to climb Crib-Goch via its North Ridge and onto the East Ridge. This was chosen to give an extended day out and allow us to find our feet on the quiet North Ridge rather than joining the procession from Pen-y-Pass. The walk up took about 1 ½ hours before we started on the ridge itself. There were frequent photo stops - it was too good to resist!

Finally we began the scramble proper and began to carefully make our way up towards the East ridge. Snowdon comes into view early and we could see what seemed to be thousands of people milling around its summit (it was!).

Once on the East Ridge, the fun begins. There are always people faster and slower, and as we crossed we negotiated our way around others making their way across. Eventually we dropped into the gap at the end of the ridge and headed for Crib-y-Ddsgyl, our next objective. Again more climbing and scrambling to bring us onto its summit, by now, our confidence growing, we were looking for harder routes to climb, rather than the easier ones taken by some. From here, we could clearly see the Snowdon railway making its way up to the summit. There is a short, but frustrating descent onto Snowdon, losing valuable height before joining the main track that leads to the summit above. On arrival, we queued to go to the actual top! Something I have never done in my life before and I have been on Snowdon many times - the good weather had certainly bought the crowds.

After a leisurely lunch, my clients decided that they were maxed out with scrambling so opted for the easier, but equally nice route down to the lakes and along the Miners track back to Pen-y-Pass car park. Our day, of course, was not over and we had the mile or so walk down to the Cromlech bridge ahead of us.

Feet and legs complaning about the tarmac at the end of a long day. Soon enough we were there though. A quick change and back to the camp site, via the ice cream shop at Capel Curig.

The evenings Guinness tasting so much better after a long day out on the hill.

Our destination was the North ridge of Tryfan, that is the one that reaches down to the A5 in the Ogwen Valley. It looks immense from the road, quite intimidating. I can easily understand why people are nervous of it. We parked the car in the Milestone car park, got our boots on and headed upwards.The first 45 minutes or so is steadily up via the path, so very little in the way of scrambling. The mountain opens a little and invites the climber to head to steeper ground. There is no one way up Tryfan, but generally keeping to the centre of the ridge provides the best climbing. It eases in places, then steepens again, sometimes rocky, sometimes heather, occasionally paths are met and followed for a short while, but always upwards. A break in the climbing comes just after the Cannon, which is an essential 'must do'. Then more scrambling until the final few metres is surmounted and the summit appears. We had been climbing for 2 hours and 20 minutes. A good ascent with no problems. My fastest ascent was a solo effort in 1 hour 20 minutes, but I wasn't 'hanging around'. Given that it was my clients second day of scrambling having never done it before, we were all well pleased with the efforts.

The summit again had superb views all round, but there were hundreds of midges, so we quickly moved off towards the South Summit and col before the final scramble of the day which was Bristley Ridge. At the base of the ridge, I insisted my clients wear their harnesses just in case we needed them. So far, there was nothing to indicate that they might need them, but Bristley Ridge is the hardest of the two days of scrambling and it would be no good getting half way and finding them necessary! In the event, we sailed up without problem and soon found ourselves on the summit of Glyder Fach heading for the Cantilever stone. It was amazing to be able to walk towards it without a compass or checking the ground to ensure we were going in the right direction. It is not the actual summit, but some 150m South East. I made a mental note of the ground for future reference. We had the obligatory photos taken, then headed for the true summit for drinks and food.

All too soon it was time to descend. I had hoped to walk round to Devils Kitchen and down via Llyn Idwal and Idwal Slabs, but time was against us, so we opted for Griben Ridge, then East at the base, which bought us eventually back to the car. It was 5:30pm.

We changed and drove back to Betwys via the same Ice cream shop as a reward for the day, then, after saying goodbye, began our journeys home.