A Short Stroll in Snowdonia
By Mark Garrod
We could blame Dave Bish, for setting the H2H 3K challenge a few years ago, but in reality Michelle and I have been meaning to get round to doing the Hut-to-Hut Welsh Three’s for almost as many years as we have been together – and that amounts to a good few missed opportunities. Normal excuses have either been the weather or the state of my body, or both, as well as getting blown off Elidir Fawr at midnight when we did actually set off once before.
After the training event of the 16-Stoner, we decided to go for it on the early July Ty Powdwr meet. Away by 3.50am, we met our first walker at about 6.30am; he was heading up Y Garn from Ogwen to meet his son who was “doing the 15 peak challenge” as he proudly explained. Our response that we were doing the Welsh Three’s got zero recognition – maybe we took so long to get round doing it that they changed the name in the meantime?
Perversely, we did pretty well on all of the big uphill sections, esp Pen Yr Ole Wen (70 mins from Ogwen), and even slogging up to Crib Goch at 8-9pm went fairly smoothly (75 mins from the Pass) given we had been going for 16 hours. Tryfan via the North ridge was tough, but it was about 24oC and mid-afternoon so we had an excuse. It was the downhills that took their toll, with our toes complaining on the first decent, and then just plain painful on all the others, meaning we slipped steadily back from a target of an 18-hour schedule. Michelle’s toe nails are still black 6 weeks later.
The route was clockwise, with breakfast on Pen Yr Ole Wen, lunch on the descent to the foot of Tryfan, and a very welcome slice of cake and plentiful tea at Pen y Pass at 7.30pm. The weather was great, if rather hot, with visibility no issue, although it may have become an issue for the group in “15 Peak” tee-shirts, who we met on the Glyders at 5.30pm, and still had the Carnedds to do, and had no headtorches. They did admit to making slow progress.
The one problem going clockwise is having to traverse Crib Goch when you are knackered, and this concern was heightened when I fell off the (faint) path on the steep rocky ascent section heading up to CribGoch and the start of the ridge. Fortunately I landed without damage, and thereafter we both used every limb we had to ensure maximum contact with the ridge, as opposed to the normal carefree hands-in-pockets stroll that has been known. We timed our arrival at the “safe” point of Crib Y Dysgl just as it got dark, and after a final “elevenses” break, headed over to Snowdon at 10.50pm. All that was left was the gentle descent to Llanberis and the climb back to the hut. We both felt great on Snowdon, and chatted to the various bivvi’ers, mountain bikers, star gazers and photographers who were on the summit then. We then both hit the wall about 1/3 rd of the way down the tourist path, with Michelle sleep-walking most of the way, and both wondering how we were going to make it up through the quarries to the hut. The answer was…….very slowly.
Thanks to Philippa, Alice and Kevin for stopping up to welcome us back at 1.47am. Sleep came fairly easily after our short stroll. A quick check of the map suggests 54 kms and 3905m of up and down.
