Welsh 3000s Charity Walk

(19th/20th May 2007)

Team: Adrian, Ben, Chris, Richard and Wendy

Support: Emma and Chunk

Richard

Day one

In the days and weeks leading up to the walk the voice of Peter Kay kept running and running through my head…I’m telling you, 15 peaks in a day…15 peaks in one day! With bravado and optimism, this is the challenge we had set ourselves, ignoring the simple truth that it could take in excess of sixteen hours graft to complete the 30 mile plus trek across the fifteen highest peaks of Snowdonia.

I was the one with pressure on my shoulders, with £250 of sponsorship personally driving me on to complete the challenge on behalf of Fordhall Farm, a community owned organic farm out in rural Shropshire.

But come the Friday the optimism started to fade as gloomy weather forecasts of 50mph winds dampened the spirits. None of us were crazy enough to want to tackle the knife-edge ridge of Crib Goch in that weather. By the time we were pegging down our billowing tents and listening to the wind come howl at our basic and exposed campsite at the head of Llyn Mymbyr (outside of Capel Curig), plan B was already being drawn up.

We decided to take a leisurely start on the Saturday morning. As the wind was still gusting strong our safest option was to tackle the Carneddau ridge and hope for better weather on the Sunday to complete the mission. Arriving at Bethesda past 10 o’clock we had a sheltered but long climb out onto the ridge, and it was only at the top that the peaks were being ticked off at what felt to be a fairly rapid pace – Foel Fras, Garnedd Uchaf, Foel Grach, Carnedd Llewellyn, Yr Elen, Carnedd Dafydd, Pen Yr Ole Wen all came and went. However, we were all feeling the effects of the deafening and battering wind on both legs and ears. A special mention must go to poor Ade who developed evil blisters on his heels even before lunchtime and still hobbled on manfully through gritted teeth. His view of the experience must be a lot more graphic than my own.

It must be said that we were at least lucky and relieved that the showers that we had been promised did not materialise (as that really would have crippled any remaining optimism) and we finally made the tricky and painstaking descent down from the ridge into the Ogwen Valley for 5 o’clock. Although we had just finished a long and hard days walk…celebrations were noticeably muted as we looked up at the Glyderau and beyond and thought of what was still left to be completed.

Chris

Day two welsh 3000’s May 2007

We awoke on the Sunday after a rest full night’s sleep, as the wind had died down over night.

We were all optimistic that now the weather had calmed we would be able to traverse the narrow and exposed ridge to Snowdon summit, Crib Goch and complete the second section of our route.

 Llyn Mymbyr campsite is positioned on a small hill in a valley with a beautiful view of Snowdon.  It was oar-inspiring watching the sunrise over the mountain peak and it filled us with confidence.  We set off at about 8 am for an 8:30 start at Pen Y Pass. Emma did a great job as our support team ferrying us all in two trips to the car park.

As we started the climb up the pig track we were looking forward to a good day the sun was out and it was looking to be a hot day.  Crib Goch did not disappoint and the views from on top of the ridge were brilliant.  The scramble up to Crib Goch and the knife-edge ridge itself was a great and exhilarating way to start the second day.  We had views all the way to the Menai Strait.  

Once we had ticked off Crib Goch, Garnedd Ugain and Snowdon came quickly and it was nice to have three of the remaining 8 peaks under our belt.  After a quick sandwich stop at the summit of Snowdon we had to keep moving, we still had five peaks to do before our task was complete.

We followed the railway line down the mountainside and at the half way station made our decent down a steep and rather boggy grass gully.  This slightly trickier decent saved us about three miles and valuable time.  We reached the valley and the village of Nant Peris by about midday.

The day was turning out to be rather hotter than predicted and we were all running low on water.  Luckily with some persuasion and a donation to their charity walk up Snowdon, a pub in the valley offered to fill up our bladders.  We set off again as soon as possible for the looooong and painful climb back up to Elidir Fawr at 924 metres. 

Adrian’s blisters were causing him problems and everyone was really glad of the rest while he renewed his bandages and soldiered on.  With relief we reached the summit and were all starting to feel tired but we still had the last four peaks to top out.

The walk across to Y Garn had no where near as much up and we were met with the welcome sight of Emma and Chunk (my Black Labrador), who had luckily brought more water to supply our now dwindling reserves.  We had a beautiful view from Y Garn over the seven mountains we had climbed on the Saturday and the four peaks we had just done.

There were only three peaks to do and the end seemed in sight.  We started the climb up the loose scree slope up to do Glyder Fawr and Fach on very tired legs.  Tryfan was now in sight our finishing point. We were all extremely fatigued.  I had been eating Nutri Grain bars all weekend and they were beginning to taste of nothing, the trip took on a rather apocalyptic feel.  We all started bartering for snack bars I managed to trade my Nutri Grain bar for Ade’s penguin, bliss.

We began the final scramble up to the summit of Tryfan eager to top out number fifteen and tick off the route.  As we reached the summit of the fifteenth and last mountain on our route the sun was still blazing down and it was a beautiful evening.  Luckily there were two other people just arriving at the summit as we did and they took a group photo of the final peak and conclusion of our exhilarating and challenging weekend.