I recently organised a charity fundraising event that involved a group of eight of my best mates and me walking up mountains for two days in Snowdonia. We were all pretty inexperienced when it came to mountain walking so we enrolled the help of Leo Hoare to help us plan a suitable challenge and accompany us on the event. Leo is a bit of an outdoor pursuits guru who worked in Plas-y-brenin for 7 years, and whilst his main talents revolve around canoes and kayaks, he is also a qualified mountain leader and is equally as happy on the high ground as the lakes!
We first met up with Leo in a bar in the Ruthin Castle and after discussing the general fitness of the group we opened Ordnance Survey Map 17 (Leisure) and Leo mapped out a couple of routes to keep us busy for the two days; we would tackle Snowdon on the first day and the Carneddau range on the second. The challenge was therefore set and everyone had a couple of months to get into shape and get the sponsor money rolling in!
On the morning of 18th July 2008, we met up in the car park at Pen-y-pass. The weather was wet, in fact it was very wet. Leo gave us a briefing with the aid of the map on what the day would entail and went through a check making sure we had the essentials packed – food, water, waterproof jackets etc. … and at approximately 9.00am we set off on the Pyg Track.
From a navigational point of view, Snowdon is fairly straight forward from Pen-y-pass, with the Pyg Track and Miners Track being defined routes leading you directly to the summit. Crib Goch is a notoriously dangerous route that branches off from the Pyg Track and whilst the sign directing you there looks appealing, the stark reality is that not many calendars pass by without someone dying on the Crib Goch ridge. Never a consideration for our inexperienced group then, and after since looking at a few clips on You Tube, not a route I personally ever fancy taking!
The trek up the Pyg Track was fairly uneventful. The weather got wetter, we got wetter, and we learnt that gore-tex jackets actually have a life span – which for a few of us appeared to have expired! The mist was fairly low so the views of the Snowdon horseshoe were limited.
At the summit, the weather stepped up a couple of gears: the rain got heavier (if that was possible) and a strong wind also came into play. By this point quite a few in the group were soaked to the bone and getting cold. This is where Leo’s ‘tardis-like’ rucksack came into play. First out came what we christened ‘pac-man’. I am not going to try to describe what this is so you will have to refer to the photos. This piece of equipment was amazing and within a few minutes we were all fully sheltered from the elements. Andy Fleming opened up a corner shop and within minutes we were supping steaming-hot-Bovril and tea. Leo sorted a few of us needy ones out with an extra top and waterproof pants; the weather was so bad that we were all quite keen to get back and get the blood flowing again! The site of Gareth who kept bragging how he was brought up ‘in these parts’ soaked to the bone in a pair of skimpy football shorts and Hi-tec trainers was secretly hysterical!
Again the descent was fairly uneventful - by the end of the following day we learnt that ‘uneventful’ is actually a good thing when up in the mountains! The mist appeared to clear up slightly, affording us some of the spectacular views of the ridges and waterfalls leading down to Glaslyn. For the record, the weather was still bl**dy wet!
It was probably about 3.30pm when we got back to Pen-y-pass…and yes you guessed it, the rain finally stopped!
“As long as you keep dry it’s pretty easy this mountain walking lark” we thought as we headed off to our digs for the night and a couple of well earned pints. How naïve we were; tomorrow’s events would teach us a lesson we would never forget…
We met up in a coffee house in Betws-y-coed at 8.00am and Leo explained the route we had planned. We were to start with a climb and a scramble up Pen-yr-ole-wen and then navigate across the Carneddau ridges to Dafydd, Llewelyn and then Yr Elen. To give you an idea of the heights, these peaks rise to above 3,400 feet whilst Snowdon is only a fraction higher, being around 3,500 feet, although you start from a much lower point than Pen-y-pass so it is actually a greater climb.
Leo had checked the Met office weather website for the day and reported that whilst there would still be plenty of rain about, it wouldn’t be as wet as the Friday, but the winds were forecast to be stronger at around 40mph and north westerly therefore it would be a much colder day than the Friday. The bottom line was that no one was coming today unless they were properly dressed. Leo, looking like he had just broken into the local Millets, starting dishing out spare bits of kit he had brought along. We would be very thankful for that later on.
So off we set in our convoy, through Capel Curig to the main road that splits the Glyders and Tryfan from the Carneddau range. We parked up on the long lay-by, got kitted-up and set off for Pen-yr-ole-wen. For the first part of the walk you follow a stream and pick up odd bits of path and after a fair slog you get to the same level as a lake, Ffynnon Lloer, at which point you look west to the steep ridge that you are about to scramble!
The next hour or two was brilliant. Plenty of climbing, plenty of steep rocks, the weather had turned wet again by this point, which made the rocks slippy and trickier to climb, but we all got a real buzz here. There were no parts that were overly dangerous, but technically it was a great challenge for people of our experience.
About half way up the ridge we found a plateau that was sheltered by protruding rocks so stopped to get stuck in to the pork pies and scotch eggs, kindly provided by Mrs. Parry! As everyone was sitting down I stood up to look at the views when this huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and literally blew me a couple of yards off my feet. Everyone felt the gust, and whilst nervously laughing at my wobble, it was an insight into what we were getting into and how dangerous things could get.
After some more scrambling, the rocks levelled out a bit and there was a steep grass incline to the peak. At this point the mist seemed to come in from nowhere and all of a sudden we were in a totally different situation. Leo called for the troops to stay close together and we steadily made our way up to the summit. The wind was now battering us making walking a real effort as we reached the cairn at the summit.
On a clear day navigation is fairly straight forward as you can use your eyes to guide you. On a day like today however we learnt quickly that you need to be able to accurately read a map with a compass and measure your way to the correct route because if you miss the path over the ridge you could literally end up standing on the edge of a cliff – not really what you want to be doing with strong winds about!
So Leo navigated us to the correct path along the ridge and we started making our way to Carnedd Dafydd. If it was possible, the weather seemed to be getting even worse and the combination of hard driving rain, very strong winds and thick mist was making walking very difficult and taking ages. We therefore made use of the next cairn at Carnedd Fach and welcomed the shelter as an opportunity to get some more food and hot drink. In the cairn there were two couples; one was a couple in their 50s who we had bumped into earlier and seemed to be fairly experienced, but had decided to turn back - they had all of the electronic equipment with them and measured the wind at 75mph! The others were a couple of city-slickers who were clearly out of their depth. The younger of the two fellas was visibly shaking and obviously scared. We gave him some of our hot drinks which seemed to help him and they were comforted when the other couple offered to accompany them back the way they had came.
Leo was already weighing up the options of our trip, however going back down Pen-yr-ole-wen was not a great one because it was a fairly tricky climb up which would make it a far harder climb down, especially with the wet, slippery rocks. The ridges in this area were still fairly wide so it was a safer option to carry on and for Leo to navigate us to Carnedd Dafydd.
Conditions kept getting tougher and it really was taking an age for us to get a short distance. This was obviously down to the weather severely restricting our movement, but also because Leo was having to pace everything out and keep taking reference points from the map. Visibility was down to 10 yards which has to be experienced to be believed.
Eventually we reached the cairn at Dafydd and had another committee meeting. Some of the lads were quite wet again by now and quite a few were feeling the cold. The conditions really were unbelievable and something none of us had ever experienced. Leo reckoned the weather was abnormally severe for that time of year and was certainly far worse than the Met office had forecast. What was quite obvious was that we were not going to be able to make it to Yr Elen. The ridges become a lot narrower as you approach Llewelyn and in parts are really narrow up to Yr Elen with very steep drops on both sides. There was no way that Leo was going to take us down that route in this weather – it just wasn’t safe; we already knew those 75mph winds were more than capable of blowing you clean off your feet. The other thing to consider was that we were moving very slowly in this weather and as members of the group were already feeling the conditions we couldn’t stay on these ridges for too much longer. Hyperthermia can kick-in in minutes and the last place you want to be when that happens is 3 hours from climbing down a mountain. Our faces felt like they’d done ten rounds with Mike Tyson such was the battering we’d had from the wind.
It was a shame that we were forced to alter our route and not do exactly what we had planned, but by the time we changed direction the reality was that on a clear day we were probably only 45 minutes away from Yr Elen over flat land that would have been a doddle to reach in clear weather. What we actually got put through was a far tougher challenge than it should have been, but as any mountain leader will tell you, safety always has to come first.
So we headed off, still on our original route towards Llewelyn, however after another long slog in Wales’ version of Siberia we changed direction about half way on the ridge. Leo had been carefully pacing the route and after a certain number of yards changed direction and headed us down the ridge at a point where the gradient was manageable. Again he paced the route so far and again we changed direction as the map highlighted a steep and dangerous drop on our previous route. It was about this point that we got beneath the clouds and I think it’s fair to say that a huge sigh of relief was had by all.
We stopped for another well earned butty break. I think I will be taking whisky with me next time though! As we continued the descent, Tryfan across the way came spectacularly in to view, and as with the law of the sod, didn’t have a cloud near it! Another thing I learnt on this trip was that each mountain range in Snowdonia actually has it’s own weather system.
A few of the old dogs in the group felt their knees almost breaking on the descent to low ground (stand up Si Bonnet!), but we all made it back safely and soon ended up back in the café in Betwys-y-coed, except this time sitting outside in scorching heat! Unbelievable!
We all had a magnificent experience and pretty much everyone has caught this mountain bug BIG TIME. We are already planning the next one. The help and guidance we had from Leo was immeasurable. We learnt so much in two days. The weather meant we were thrown right in the deep end and I am just thankful that we were lucky to have Leo along … or we would have no doubt been making a phone call to the big yellow budgie!
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