Glyders Walk

Members present: John Castick, Virginia Castick, Dave Wylie, Dave Dillon, Oi Ding Koi, Mark Ashley, Bob Kelly.

In order to encourage more members to use their own hut I decided to run a classic walk door to door.

After a night of rain and gales, it was still foul as we walked down to Llanberis to catch the bus on Saturday. The best bargain in Wales must be the £1, yes, ONE pound fare to Pen-y-Pass. After we sheltered in the cafe entrance donning our waterproofs and being tantalised by the aroma of bacon butties, we crossed the road, got onto the path, and the rain stopped. This minor miracle set the tone for the day. As we ascended an extremely vague path to the top of Glyder Fawr the weather continued to improve, leaving us with a clear view and mostly sunshine for the rest of the day. At the top we turned west and descended down to Llyn Cwn and lunch. John caught us up and enjoyed our wind free picnic spot as we watched Mark fly his kite above us. We had a straightforward walk onto Y Garn enjoying clear and distant views all round. Only Snowdon was in the cloud. An easy traverse of Foel Goch led us to the final climb up to Elidir Fawr and a long rest in the summit shelter out of the wind. Dave Wylie led us unerringly down through the quarries by a really easy track. We only had to climb one gate and met no barbed wire. Back at the hut we sat out in the warm sun consuming lots of welcome tea. The walk turned out to be 11 miles long and ascended over 4200 feet.

Sunday was a much more unsettled day and only Bob set out with any firm intention of going up a hill. We left early and drove home through lots of rain.

Dust off your walking boots for a classic walk over the Glyders on the Saturday. The idea is to catch the bus from Llanberis to Pen-y-pass and walk back to the hut from there, going over Glyder Fach, Glyder Fawr, down to the Devils Kitchen and then flog up Y Garn, across to Foel Goch and finish on Elidir Fawr. I hope someone then knows their way back to the hut without trespassing!

I've yet to check the bus timetable but I know they run quite frequently. Sunday will be a traditional day of rest for me but you fit types will, no doubt, require another day of rufty tufty action.