Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2004
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My first trip of the year to Snowdonia.
I love Wales (my family comes from the Valleys) and I love mountains. I thought I'd share details of my recent long weekend in the Promised Land...
One thing about the weather in Wales is it is always a gamble with what you will get. However I decided mid-feburary is a good enough time to risk my first trip up the mountains. Well it couldn't have been worse that last years first climb. -20 wind chill, ice sheets and zero visibility.
We decided to make a long weekend of it an chose to stay at a very nice Bed & Breakfast inside the town walls of Caernarfon. The good news is it had nice views and was right next to the castle (see the pictures below) - the bad news was there is no parking inside the old town. Still a quick trip up the road netted some safe and free parking. Result.
As you can see the castle looks very nice all light up at night. Now on to the whole point of coming to Wales. Well apart from the hospitality, great local ales and the best girls in the world...
...that would be a trip up the mountains! My original route was to start off at the Ogwen Cottage where I nearly always start my walks in this area of Snowdonia and proceed towards Tryfan and then turn right and head across the ridge via Glyder Fach and then down the Devils Kitchen and back to the car. Alas the weather prevented this as the visibility dropped so I took the more challenging but shorter route up Tryfan.
Onwards and upwards...
You can see from the A5 that the tops of the mountains are in the clouds. I was hoping the sunny (yes sunny!) weather we had in Caernarfon would follow and shift the cloud. So with that in mind off I went...
It is truly difficult to ever get tired of views like these...
To my surprise there was still some snow above 2000ft...
It was at this point that the cloud cover came down and made going slow. I decided given the wind and visibility to attempt to summit Tryfan instead. No easy feat in these conditions but I know Tryfan well and so set off. As you can see from the picture the visibility had dropped. I stopped taking pictures at this point and concentrated on not getting lost and really concentrated on not falling off a cliff.
Scaling the three peaks of Tryfan is actual mountaineering rather than a nice walk up a path. I enjoyed a nice sarnie and a drink at the summit. Couldn't see anything although annoyingly I could hear the noise of the A5. I could also hear other people around me. They could have been anywhere including a few yards from me. Very spooky.
Coming back down was a challenge. I had to backtrack a few times and climb back up as even a slight drift off course leads to shear cliff edges. You really have to be careful when you can only see a few feet...
Once I had gotten below the clouds this epic view appeared towards Bethesda and Bangor.
By the time I got back to Caernarfon and a well deserved pint I was knackered. I still have a smile on my face today. A glorious long weekend in Wales.
I look forward to my imminent return to the land of my ancestors...
Thanks for reading!
I love Wales (my family comes from the Valleys) and I love mountains. I thought I'd share details of my recent long weekend in the Promised Land...
One thing about the weather in Wales is it is always a gamble with what you will get. However I decided mid-feburary is a good enough time to risk my first trip up the mountains. Well it couldn't have been worse that last years first climb. -20 wind chill, ice sheets and zero visibility.
We decided to make a long weekend of it an chose to stay at a very nice Bed & Breakfast inside the town walls of Caernarfon. The good news is it had nice views and was right next to the castle (see the pictures below) - the bad news was there is no parking inside the old town. Still a quick trip up the road netted some safe and free parking. Result.
As you can see the castle looks very nice all light up at night. Now on to the whole point of coming to Wales. Well apart from the hospitality, great local ales and the best girls in the world...
...that would be a trip up the mountains! My original route was to start off at the Ogwen Cottage where I nearly always start my walks in this area of Snowdonia and proceed towards Tryfan and then turn right and head across the ridge via Glyder Fach and then down the Devils Kitchen and back to the car. Alas the weather prevented this as the visibility dropped so I took the more challenging but shorter route up Tryfan.
Onwards and upwards...
You can see from the A5 that the tops of the mountains are in the clouds. I was hoping the sunny (yes sunny!) weather we had in Caernarfon would follow and shift the cloud. So with that in mind off I went...
It is truly difficult to ever get tired of views like these...
To my surprise there was still some snow above 2000ft...
It was at this point that the cloud cover came down and made going slow. I decided given the wind and visibility to attempt to summit Tryfan instead. No easy feat in these conditions but I know Tryfan well and so set off. As you can see from the picture the visibility had dropped. I stopped taking pictures at this point and concentrated on not getting lost and really concentrated on not falling off a cliff.
Scaling the three peaks of Tryfan is actual mountaineering rather than a nice walk up a path. I enjoyed a nice sarnie and a drink at the summit. Couldn't see anything although annoyingly I could hear the noise of the A5. I could also hear other people around me. They could have been anywhere including a few yards from me. Very spooky.
Coming back down was a challenge. I had to backtrack a few times and climb back up as even a slight drift off course leads to shear cliff edges. You really have to be careful when you can only see a few feet...
Once I had gotten below the clouds this epic view appeared towards Bethesda and Bangor.
By the time I got back to Caernarfon and a well deserved pint I was knackered. I still have a smile on my face today. A glorious long weekend in Wales.
I look forward to my imminent return to the land of my ancestors...
Thanks for reading!
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
