Next time, remember the crampons
Training for the Pyrenees has begun! Pete Smith and I spent the weekend in Snowdonia, where we hoped to climb some of the Welsh 3000s, but the weather was much worse than forecast and we never actually made a summit.
The plan had been to start with Tryfan, head along the Glyders, then even consider taking in Snowdon before heading back to camp on the Glyders. Unfortunately the scramble up the north face of Tryfan took way longer than expected, and ultimately ended in failure: we met various groups who’d given up at a steep snowy gully, and when we went round to have a look we decided they’d made the right decision.
We were traversing across a pretty steep snowfield to get to the gully, but the gully itself was much worse. It was steep and icy, and fed straight off the edge of a cliff, so a slip would have been messy. At this stage we both realised that crampons and ice axes would have made life a lot easier - unfortunately the forecast had been for light rain, so we were ill-equipped.
It was a slightly disappointing day, partly because we didn’t make the summit and partly because we spent almost the whole day in the shade. Although the sky was clear we were in the shade of the mountain, and we kept looking across to Pen yr Ole Wen and the Carneddau in glorious sunshine, wishing we’d gone up the other side of the valley!
We climbed back down almost to the A5, then walked along to camp near Llyn Idwal. It was a cold and snowy night, but it was good to test the kit and quite fun to be out in the open on such a bitter night.
Sunday started cloudy, with occasional snow-storms sticking around. After packing up the tent we set off to climb Y Garn, hoping we could get to the ridge up an easier route and knock off a few summits to make up for the previous day.
The snow got worse as we climbed and by the time we approached the ridge our tracks were being covered almost as soon as we took the next step. The wind was howling over the buttress we were climbing and spitting hail in our faces, which was so painful at times we had to stop and turn away from it.
We were kicking steps for the last few hundred metres, but near the top the slope got steeper and the snow shallower, so we were kicking straight into the ice. Without crampons it all began to feel a bit sketchy, then we spotted a 4 or 5 foot cornice on the top of the ridge. We couldn’t see far along the ridge to check if the cornice was continuous due to the cloud, but from what we could see there was no way to attack it, especially not without ice axes. Even with the right kit, we weren’t sure what the best way to deal with it would be, as we were once again at the top of a steep slope that would have sent us down several hundred feet if we’d slipped.
We retreated down the way we’d come and got thoroughly annoyed when group after group asked “how was it on the top?” and we had to explain that we hadn’t actually got there!
On the positive side, we got back down safely and definitely learnt our lesson: if you’re going mountaineering in the middle of winter on some of Wales’ biggest summits, remember to take winter mountaineering kit!