Snowdonia, Chapter 2, Return to the Hills!

The trip to snowdonia with the GOC was fantastic. Marvellous food, marvellous company, and great fun all round.

We took a group up Crib Goch, quite a challenge in the wind, fog and rain for those who'd never scrambled before, although members who'd done the ridge before commented that it can be less scary in the fog coz you can't see the drops!

The Snowdon Summit was somewhat dissapointing, having been left with building site surrounded by that wire fencing stuff you get at... er... building sites after the demolision of the cafe! It was amusing though watching lots of fed up tourists in their jeans (shorts in some cases), hoodies and trainers who had ascended the tourist routes discovering that there were no views, no cafe, lots of cold wind and rain, and no train back down!

Anyway, some of the lads seem to have found time and space to take some much better photo's than I ever manage in the hills, and they can be found here, here and here. I wish they'd managed to make me look less podgy and frumpy in all the wet and cold weather gear though. Does anyone know how to wear a buff as a balaclava without making yourself look like an old lady in a head scarf?

A sore knee, lack of fitness and no energy forced a rest day for me on Sunday while others did the North Ridge of Tryfan.

On Monday I did Cniefion Arete with two great lads I arranged to meet with through UKCimbing. As I was unfit and we needed to move fast they kindly carried all the kit on the walk in and walk out leaving me with nothing but lunch tourch water and water-proofs. I'll have to look into the this 'porterage' malachy a little more!

Tuesday saw another meeting up with a random stranger from UKClimbing (oh no, I'm becoming a climbing whore) to do a diff on Tryfan Fach (good consolidation for newly aquired leading skills) before the long drive back south for a lovely rest of the week and weekend with my lovely Girlfriend (mwah).