Johnny Hall's Travels and Travails

...any time soon. That was a brutal day. A long one too - just under 18 hours to walk over the 15 mountains over 3000 feet in Wales. 30 miles and 4800 metres of climbing. We were up sharp at three thirty and started out up the Pyg Track from the Pen-y-Pass car park at 4. It was more or less dry, which was a bonus but it was also windy and cloudy. Crib Goch made for a nice fun start but it didn't stay fun for long. We arrived on a lonely Snowdon summit at six thirty just in time for the clouds to part (a bit) and give us some decent views. At this point we were making good time, without hurrying (it was going to be a long day, no point in killing ourselves). The descent to Nant Peris was a bit awkward because there is no obvious path and the way is steep. We contented ourselves with the thought that it was probably the worst descent of the day (it wasn't). I wasn't looking forward to the climb up Elidir Fawr after I had descended it on my last attempt on the Wales 3000s a couple of years ago (when I got sick and had to stop half way up Crib Goch with 3 peaks to go). That time, I must have missed the path but luckily we found it this time and the ascent, despite being pretty long, wasn't too horrible. On the top of Elidir Fawr we could see the whole of the Glyder range laid out before us, as well as Pen Yr Ole Wen on the other side of the A5. At that point I think I realised how much there still was to do. No point thinking about it though. So, we put our heads down and got on with it. The route to Y Garn is pretty easy and gave us a chance to get moving. The rest of the Glyders were a bit harder. The ascent of Fawr is steep and loose and the summit plateau is rough and rocky. This combined with some low cloud and rain to make the rocks wet which made walking a bit treacherous. After almost descending Y Gribin (oops!) we found the summit of Fach and walked past the cantilever stone (no photos this time - too much cloud). The descent from Fach was nasty - steep and loose, if not very long. There were quite a few people on it too - none of them enjoying themselves. Tryfan was good fun until we had to get off it. We couldn't find the scree slope on the west face which leads to the path, so we had to down climb some big old rocks, which was a bit tiring. We also had to contend with our biggest crowds of the day. Who brings a yappy little dog up a mountain like Tryfan anyway? Idiotic. We took a bit of a rest at Ogwen Cottage and steeled ourselves for 700 metres of steep and brutish ascent up Pen Yr Ole Wen. We were a bit bushed by this point and we realised why so many people quit here. No quitting for us though, we're made of sterner stuff than that. I'm proud of the fact that at no point during the day did I either think about stopping or doubted that I would complete. The ascent of Pen Yr Ole Wen felt like it was vertical and it did seem to drag on a bit. Naively, I felt that once we'd completed this ascent, all of the hard work was going to be done. Wrong. Handily, the cloud came down at this point giving us a few navigation issues. Especially when your compass is broken. Luckily after wandering about lost for a few minutes we met another group who helped us to realise that our compass was broken. Thanks, whoever you were/are. The spare compass was taken out of my bag and we got on our way. The Carneddau are grand mountains but our fatigue combined with low cloud and extremely strong winds to lessen our enjoyment. The walk to Dafydd was fine but someone turned the dial on the wind on the way to Llewelyn. Cheers for that. We missed the bypass path to Yr Aran due to the cloud and the fact that it's not very obvious, so we dumped our sacks on the path down Llewelyn and then had a dash up Aran. Miraculously, I was feeling pretty good by this point. In fact, I continued to feel on good form for the rest of the walk and I managed to up the pace a little, especially when we weren't going up anything steep, which is most of the Carneddau. So, that only left the last 3 and the descent to Gerlan and Iain's pre-parked car. We dashed through those last three and then had to double back to pick up the descent route, which was a bit of a pain. The final descent of any mountain day is always a pain in the arse and this was no exception. Luckily my legs were feeling good so it wasn't too bad. Long though. 5 miles long. It was more or less uneventful apart from meeting some wild shetland ponies and my knees complaining vocally about the steep descents. Quite rightfully. We started in the dark and we arrived back at the car in the dark, which is the first time that's ever happened to me. And a friendly cat congratulated us on our achievement, which was nice. Then it was time for fish and chips. I'll not be doing it again any time soon. It's far too much like hard work.