| With a really good weather forecast myself,
Sally and Sarah headed off for the hut in Llanberis on Thursday evening in
December with grand
plans for a quiet ascent of Grooved Arête on the east face of Tryfan on the
Friday. Traffic wise this was a smart move as only 3½ hours after leaving
Newbury we were in the Bryn Turch. Climbing wise, not quite so smart as the
weather guessers got it totally wrong and Friday was damp with copious
quantities of hill fog. Grooved Arête was therefore out of the equation as
its far too polished to go in the wet. Plan B was Pinnacle Ridge (on the E
face of Tryfan again) however, after scrambling up to the start of Heather
Terrace it was obvious that the rock was far to damp and greasy for climbing
on. Hence we went on to Plan C which was the North Ridge of Tryfan. I can’t
actually remember the last time I went up the north ridge, I usually use it
as a descent route after doing climbs on the east face so it was in effect
new for me. It was a first for Sarah as she’d never even climbed Tryfan
before and was keen to do the north ridge. OK, a little confession, guess
who got his foot wedged between two rocks and had to take his foot out of
the boot in order to extricate it? But anyway, we scrambled merrily up to
the top and then back down the south ridge, accompanied all the time by
outstanding views of the inside of a cloud. I know I said it is a long time
since I’d last done the north ridge, but I seem to remember it’s a bit
better when the sun’s shining. |
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Saturday was somewhat drier (the weather
guessers got this one right) and a group of us - me, Rob (Smart), Clare,
Mark (Taylor), Sarah -set off for Crib Goch, but not the normal tourist
route. We parked up by the Cromlech boulders, skirted round Dinas Mott, and
headed up the north ridge. |
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The north ridge of Crib Goch is not a popular route as there’s much less height gain if you start
from the Pen-y-Pass, but it’s a cracking route, just as exposed as the
main ridge and its quiet. If you’re thinking of coming down this way, take
note that there is good scree running to be had, not that I’m advocating
such activities of course. At about 800 m the ridge narrows and we were
approaching the cloud base. A stopped and let the others through. I told
Mark “Keep going, you remember that classic shot of Mallory and Irving
walking off in to the mist never to be seen again, well I’m trying to
recreate it”. “Thanks” said Mark. |
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| Anyway, we soon got to the top and met up not
with the summer hoards but with a handful of other scramblers. A bite to eat
then off we go across the famous ridge. |
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| I’ve heard it called an exposed walk but when
its windy, like it was, it really is a scramble. All too soon we got to the
end but time was short so a dash up Snowdon wasn’t on. Who wants to go there
any way, Al Quaida could do us all a favour and blow the damn café up. I
wonder if they know that it’s a cover for the government’s top secret
command bunker and that the whole country would be paralysed if they blew it
up? |
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We headed down towards the Cwm Glas ridge and our descent back to
the car. Almost immediately we dropped below the clouds and had stunning
views out over the Llynn peninsular and Anglesey. Off down the ridge we
went. I don’t know how but Rob ended up route finding. This is an art
borne of years of practice, of which Rob had few. He tried to take us
off to the right down a rather loose gully that suddenly disappeared
into the unknown when the path was clearly off to the left. Normally to
name a route you have to climb it, but in this case we’ll make an
exception and it will henceforth be known as “Rob’s Death gully”. A
little lower down we looked back to see that this gulley plunged over a
300’ cliff. Fortunately we all took the path. |
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| That evening was the Christmas dinner and on
behalf of everyone, a really big “thank you” to Tracy for organising it all.
A good job she did too, she got everyone organised without appearing bossy.
Baldric couldn’t make the weekend as he was at his mate’s wedding. After 25
he lost count of the number of texts he got telling him what a great time
everyone was having. At quarter to eight the next morning Mark phoned him to
see if he was awake – well he was then! To be nice to him I took him a
turkey sandwich back, I hope he paid Tracy for his share of the food though.
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| Sunday was also nice but judging by the rivers running down Idwal
Slabs the rock was a little too wet for climbing again. A bunch of us (me, Sarah,
Sally, Mark, Rachel, Alex) headed for a little exploration inside the
Devil’s Kitchen. |
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| We geared up at the start, which basically meant
donning a full set of GoreTex and a harness and scrambled up. Immediately we found a
rotting sheep’s carcass in the stream, guess who had been drinking the water
lower down? I’m not dead yet,” baa, baa…”. Fortunately the volume of water
coming down was quite low so we didn’t get too wet. I managed to climb up
the jammed boulder pitch which if you don’t know is about 15’ high,
vertical, wet, slimy and goes at about 5b with aid. There were mutterings of
“I’m not going up that” as I struggled my way up. No problem, at the top,
out with the rope, ropeman and pulley and set up an assisted hoist. Hauling
five people up was bloody hard work but afterwards I got a pencil and paper
out and figured that I’d set it up wrong – I’d rigged a 2:1 hoist, not a
3:1. |
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| After all that we abbed back down and gently
bimbled back to the car, and no traffic on the way home either.
A really good weekend, very enjoyable, it makes a change to go out and do
some of the easier classic scrambles now and again, I’d forgotten just how
good Tryfan north ridge and Crib Goch really are. Thanks to everyone who
turned up and a really big thank you again to Tracy for organising it.
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