Snowdonia Scramble Hut and Bivvi
The long hard bivvy meet that wasn't.
Well I'm afraid the weather really didn't help attendance at Ty Powdr this Easter. I'd expected to be able to scoop up a few participants from the "regulars" at the hut but it really was quiet! Friday saw us starting as we hoped to go on despite the cold, snow flurries and high winds: Duncan, Vicky, James, Katie and myself scrambled the Western ridge of Tryfan. Three of us did take full rucksack crammed with bivvy gear and although James did an excellent job of feigning last minute keenness, Bristly ridge and a Glyder bivvy was left out in favour of a recce along Heather Terrace in preparation for Vicky's forthcoming Tryfan meet.
Colin, Pete and Sue arrived on Friday night but the weather on Saturday morning proved worse, windier and wetter so we divided forces. Colin was dropped off for a traverse along the Glyders from Pen-Y-Pass back to the hut (he has since suggested an amendment to the club constitution that states all members passing the Vaynol at Nant Peris should pop in for a swift half just in case another club member is in there having descended damp from the hills - naturally on this occasion we drove right past: hutward bound in the evening!).
Duncan and Vicky began the day with a bit of retail therapy and then hit the slate quarries while the truly hardy headed for Bikes Betwys and joined Pete's spin-off mountain bike meet which turned out to be a real hoot and plenty challenging enough for all of us who got well muddy and tired, for those interested in these things the route was the Llyn Elsi trail - a grade 2 I think and the bike shop gave us a good deal on half day rental.
Numbers dwindled on Saturday night leaving Colin, James and me determined to find some dry rock (aka Tremadog by Eric's) while Pete and Sue headed for biking on Anglesey, it being too nasty a day for the Marin trail. At Tremadog we did indeed get a couple of routes in and James got some quality leading and ropework practice and Eric (of the café) made lots of money before we were forced to bale back to the hut for an evening meal of epic proportions and some cleaning duties about which the less you know the better!
Sunday dawned with wind and rain - or was it snow? Our last day looked like a washout and James was pushing for an honourable retirement via a short day on Moel Siabod, Colin was really not inspired but threw the Llechog buttress into our moot. Finally after about an hour's uninspired discussion we headed up the pass and started Llechog. At first merely a damp semi scramble Colin fearlessly led us direct onto the ridge where the snow conditions started to pick up and I found my virtual axe particularly useful (later I swapped this tool with Colin's single axe as I knew he'd only biff himself on the nose again with his) James too was comforted by the virtual rope as we continually crossed and recrossed vertiginous snow in the hope of finding passable rock. Several flurries later we emerged at "Happy Valley" to a trainful of tourists and headed up to Crib-Y-Ddysgl where we planned to descend from via Crib Goch. Snow cover on the train track was generally around 5-10cm and by the time we got to the trig point on Crib-Y-Ddysgl wind speeds were around 65mph. With extreme whimpishness we decided not to traverse Crib Goch and headed back down the PYG track on more than enough snow to glissade down the zig zags. We passed several parties baling out from the easy ascent turned back by snow and were all quite overcome with how fantastic Snowdon looked under snow cover. We hit Pen-Y-Pass just in time for monster chip butties and then back down to the car, hut and home.
Special mentions for honorary meet members should go to Trish who called regularly to see if the weather had improved and Roger Dyke who I phoned regularly to see if the weather was going to improve.
David Bish
