As promised, here is a TR on my almost succesful attempt on the Welsh
3000s last weekend. Its quite long, so the headlines are:
o Did 14 of the 15, missing out Yr Elen due to navigation problems
o Reached the last peak 22.5 hours after leaving the first
o 6 of the 9 starters completed the route
o We raised approx £1000 for the NSPCC in the process
A link to photos will follow when I collated all the pictures from the
team, in the meantime photos from my attempt back in June may be found
at:
http://johnsphotos.photos.gb.net/c582614.html
This is my first TR, so apologies if it is too long or just plain
boring!
Thanks
John Somerfield
Reply To: john<dot>somerfield@virginmobile<dot>com
Last Saturday (9th July), Matthew, Alex, Ross, Andrew, Matt, Gary,
James, Stuart and myself set out on an attempt to complete the Welsh
3000s. This was my second attempt of the summer, the first, a month
earlier, having ended at Ogwen with only one of the party fit to
continue. This time, we were determined, would be different.
On the first attempt, a month earlier, we had opted to take the train
up Snowdon and descend via Crib Goch North Ridge. As well as meaning a
much later start than on previous attempts as the first train only
reaches the top of Snowdon at 10am, it also meant going against the
flow along Crib Goch. This, coupled with a couple of the team members
developing severe cases of the jitters, meant we lost between 2 and 3
hours on the first stage, a set back we never recovered from.
This time the team was bigger, fitter, better prepared and willing to
wake up at 3.30 am to get to the foot of Snowdon by 4:30! This we did,
and after a few minutes sorting our gear, taking photos etc we set off
up the Pyg track with the rising sun behind us lighting up the tops
with a soft pink light. We reached the top of Crib Goch shortly before
6 am to find it virtually deserted apart from ourselves and a team from
Bristol University doing the same walk. For once we could do it at our
own pace without having to stop and wait for the people in front, or
feeling we had to hurry because of the people behind.
Most of us skirted round the Pinnacles, although a couple decided to go
straight over the top, and we quickly reached the summit of Carnedd
Ugain, followed by Snowdon at 7:30 am. By this time the air temperature
was already around 20 degrees, although there was a nice cooling breeze
coming from the North.
After a pause for a summit photo, we set off down the Llanberis path
towards Clogwyn station. Just before the point where the path dips
under the track we turned right down towards Cwm Hetiau. I don't know
how much of a recognised path this is, or how heavily used it is, but
parts of the initial descent were very loose and seemed to be suffering
from the effects of erosion. Bearing in mind my mistake from the
previous year, we bore left, following the rock shoulder down until a
short scramble down a stream gully bought us in the top. From here it
was a fairly straightforward (if knee wearing) descent to the road and
the first support point at Nant Peris, which we reached shortly after 9
am.
After a short break to reload our packs, stock up with water etc, and
conscious of the long climb ahead up Elidir Fawr, we set off again.
Unfortunately we hadn't gone very far before Matthew realised he had
left his walking poles back at the minibus. He set off back to get
them, only for us to get a radio message from the bus that they had
found the poles and were taking them to the next support point at
Ogwen! Fortunately we were able to turn them around, and Matthew was
reunited with his poles.
We then set off up Elidir Fawr, which is probably my least favourite
part of the whole route. Although we made good progress initially, the
full sun and lack of breeze meant we soon started watching the small
clouds that were drifting across in the hope that we would get a spot
of shade! It soon became apparent that range of fitness and stamina
across the team was quite varied, as was the ability to do long climbs
after an evening in the pub! We finally made the summit shortly after
midday, and paused to take in one (IMHO) of the best views in Snowdonia
across Anglesey.
Up to this point we had meet surprisingly few other people despite the
good weather. Presumably people feel the slog up Elidir Fawr from Nant
Peris is too hard, and it is too far round to reach easily from Ogwen.
A shame, because although it is a beast of a climb, the views are
superb. We then set off round towards Y-Garn, skirting below Foel Goch,
reaching the summit 45 minutes later.
After Y-Garn the paths became busier, and amongst other groups we
passed was a group of school children aged around 11 or 12 being
shepherded along by a few hassled-looking leaders. Just to make us feel
inadequate, not only did they all have boots and rucksacks, most were
carrying lumps of rock (mainly quartz) that they had picked up the way.
We reached the junction at the top of the Devils kitchen at around
2:30, roughly 30 minutes behind schedule, and at this point said
good-bye to Andrew and Matt as Andrews knees had given way and he felt
unable to carry on.
Andrew was not the only one suffering by this stage, and during the
ascent of Glyder Fawr we became badly split up, with the main group of
Alex, Gary, James and Matthew reaching the summit probably 10 minutes
ahead of me and fifteen minutes ahead of Stuart and Ross. This set the
pattern for the next stage of the walk, with different people dropping
behind for different reasons, so by the time we reached Bwlch Tryfan we
were 90 minutes behind schedule.
Here one of this random, and totally unpredictable, events happened
that can effect any walk. Just as we were starting the ascent of
Tryfan, we heard calls for help coming from the Bristly ridge. It
appeared someone had got into trouble on the ridge, and was unable to
proceed either up or down (although all we could see was an arm waving
from a crack). Ross and Stuart promptly dropped their packs and set off
back to lend assistance. Fortunately, a couple of climbers also
appeared, and were able to use ropes and a harness to help the victim
down. Fortunately she was uninjured, and was last seen discussing what
had happened with her partner (who had been the one calling for help).
After this minor distraction, we continued up Tryfan, reaching the
summit shortly after 6 pm. "8 peaks in 12 hours I said , that means we
should be able to do 16 in 24" I said cheerily, an announcement that
was met with various groans and abusive comments. We then descended
towards Ogwen down the gully on the west side of Tryfan. I normally
have mixed feelings about pitched paths, but compared to state of the
path down from Glyder Fach, this was heaven.
We reached the second support point at Ogwen at 7:30, and after
refreshments, changes of boots/socks, running repairs to blisters etc,
unanimously decided to carry on to the final part of the challenge
despite the fact that the delays on the earlier part of the route meant
we would not reach Carnedd Llewelyn in daylight (a key failing which
would eventually determined whether we did all 15 peaks).
At 8:30 the seven remaining members of the original party, plus
Stuart's girlfriend Louise (who had been helping to support us) set off
along the A5 towards the path from Glan Dena up to Bryn Mawr and
Pen-Yr-Ole-Wen. On the way up, we meet a Russian couple with two young
boys on the way down, who warned us about midges and asked us when
whether we planning to camp. When we told them what we were trying to
do, they told us about the 100 km orienteering challenges they had done
in Russia. They are mad those Russians! At was at this point that we
lost Stuart and Louise when Stuart received some bad news on his mobile
and had to turn back
We then carried on up towards Pen-yr-Ole-Wen, cutting across from the
stiles in the wall towards the bottom of the rock buttress. The first
time I did this route (9 years ago), there was no obvious path to
follow, this time there was a clear path to follow. We then trudged up
the path, greeting each false summit with a groan, until we finally
reached the summit at 10:30 in the last glimmers of daylight to
treated, through a crack in the clouds, to the sight of red crescent
moon setting in the west.
After a brief halt to get out our head torches, we set off towards
Carnedd Dayffd, quickly reaching the top. Now that the sun had properly
set, the stars were coming out, and as we sat at the summit on Carnedd
Dayffd we saw several shooting stars go flashing across. We could also
see right across Liverpool bay towards Crosby and Southport.
The traverse round to Carnedd Llewelyn was difficult in the dark. We
kept losing the path, and frequently ended up having to clamber across
the rocks and boulders that surround some of the smaller lumps that
stick out along the edge. This was tiring, hard on the legs, and time
consuming. We finally reached the summit at around 12:30, and had to
decide whether to attempt Yr Elen in the dark or whether to skip it.
We decided to head for Yr Elen, and, since this needed to be an 'Out
and Back', had the good idea of walking to the edge of summit plateau
and leaving our packs there (clearly marked with glow strips). We then
set off for Yr Elen, and soon found a clear path going down. What was
less clear was whether this path was going to turn back up at any
point. We then discovered that our 'Good Idea' had one slight flaw,
although we had a GPS, we had left it and our maps with the packs. Doh!
On realising this, we abandoned Yr Elen and headed back up Carnedd
Llewelyn.
The next challenge was to find the path off Carnedd Llewelyn towards
Foel Grach without going over edge of a cliff. This was made harder by
the fact that the GPS said we were on, or very close, to the path as
shown, but there was no visible sign of it! After stumbling around in
the dark for a while, we finally picked up the path again and started
making (relatively) good time towards Foel Grach, reaching the summit
by around 3 am.
After a short rest, we headed on for Garnedd Uchaf. We had now been
walking for nearly 24 hours, and the lack of proper rest/sleep was
really starting to affect us. Ross put on a burst and reached the
summit 10 minutes ahead of the rest of us. By the time I got there he
was flat on his back asleep! I was reduced, through a combination of
exhaustion and chaffing, to what can only be described as a shuffle,
with my poles acting as a substitute Zimmer frame! By this time the sky
was lightening, and we were able to turn off our head torches before
heading on to the 15th, and final, summit Foel Fras which we reached at
4:30 am. All we had to do now was 'Get of this b****y mountain' as
Ross so eloquently put it.
Our chosen pick up point was the car park by Llyn Eiglau, and the route
instructions I had been given sounded fairly easy 'Follow the ridge
to the fence, follow the fence down to the second stile and turn left
to the dam'. The reality was something else. Even after following the
ridge for a while, there was no sign of the fence so we decided to head
diagonally down towards the dam buildings we could see in the distance.
This involved descending over rough, hummocky grass with no clear
paths, not what you need after over 24 hrs of walking.
By now the sun had fully come up almost directly on front of us, making
it hard to keep our eyes open (my 'blink' muscles were definitely
not working properly, the close bit was fine, but my eyelids kept
refusing to open again!). This was made worse by the fact we had all
lightened our packs at the second support point and discarded our
sunglasses, hats, sun cream etc as we were going to walking in the
dark. We finally reached the dam and started the seemingly interminable
slog round towards the car park and the waiting minibus, which we
reached at 6:45 am, 26 hours and at least 32 miles after we had set
off.
Was it worth it? Yes, despite only doing 14 of the 15, plus we raised
around £1000 for the NSPCC. Will we be back to try again next year?
Probably. Will I do it again? I don't know, but I can't see me
organising another attempt and then sitting in the minibus just doing
support!
Finally, I would like to give a massive vote of thanks to our support
team of Tony, Karen and Louise, and my employers (Virgin Mobile) for
letting us use the company minibus for free for both attempts.