York Alpine Club Blog

Seven of us made it to Wales for the early December meet – only to find that the cold conditions earlier in the week had gone and were replaced with somewhat milder and damp conditions- doh.

Not deterred by the damp – Paul, Rob and Mike went to do the grade 3 scramble the ridge on Carnedd y Filiast.  However, low cloud and a misreading of the guideback saw them ascending a different line to that intended 'ended up climbing some loose flaky slab then a horrible damp gully followed by quite a nice slabby arête possibly the upper section of Hawkwind or Brocken Edge?'

Simon & I went for a walk/jog from the hut over the Creigiau Gleision summits  and Craiglwyn back via various tarns (one with a swing) and forestry tracks.  We were first back (slightly unusual occurrence) got the fire going and started chopping.  Meanwhile Justine & Gav did a  similar but lower level variant of our walk/run (sensibly deciding not to take in the summits due to a lack of waterproof trousers) – it was rather wet!

Saturday eve we sat around with a roaring fire and consumed my rather green (possibly challenging) soup (spinach, pear and Roquefort).  This was followed by a great chilli from Gav (nicely spiced with hot and mild variants on offer).  Then when we didn’t really need to consume anything else we moved onto mince pies, cheese & biscuits (thanks to Pauls early Christmas leftovers) and port.

On Sunday, Paul, Rob and Mike undeterred returned to find the correct scramble – and believe that they did helped by somewhat better conditions and people ahead of them on the route.  They moved together roped up for protection utilising spikes and threads for runners with the odd gear placement.
– "Great scrambling with lots of options to make things easier or harder and really nice that the ridge takes you all the way to the summit, would have been even better in the dry (can confirm it is good in the dry – did it in January!).
– Got some nice views of the main Slab witch looked really good, need to go back on a sunny day and do some of the routes".

Simon & I went for a walk/jog up and down Moel Siabod – note rocks are very slippery in the wet.  We even had short spells of sunshine before conditions greyed up again.  Justine & Gav also did Moel Siabod with a slightly later start.  Back to the hut early, a bit more cleaning & packing and we were off early – time for Simon’s winter boot shopping in Joe browns before the drive home.

An enjoyable weekend – if not the snowy conditions we had been hoping for.

9 out of 15 who had originally signed up braved the trip to Wales to meet storm Brian.  Admittedly Wales was not the best place to be heading during the storm – but as it turned out -things were not entirely bad.

On Saturday Mike, Russ and Dave W complete with wet suits and buoyancy jackets headed off for a gorge descent – which they seemed to enjoy. Karl thought better of it and drove around Wales to buy some bolts and café visit.  Pete W and Richard P went for a run from the hut taking in Moel Hebog having to brace themselves against the wind to reach the summit.  Afterwards they went around the copper mines next to the hut.  Annie decided to get the steam train from Bedgellert to Porth Madoc  -so Simon  & I decided to join her.  I insisted in going in the open carriage – we were already wearing full waterproofs from the walk to the station – so it seemed to make sense!  Annie had a whale of a time waving and whooping as we steamed along.  After a café stop at the station and a quick trip to Cobb records (S remembered the store from his childhood) – we left Annie and jogged/walked our way back to the hut, via the part flooded gorge side path and then the hills behind the hut.  Annie got the bus back to Nantmoor and walked back from there.  We all got  rather wet and windblown but enjoyed getting out and earned ourselves lots of lasagne and peaches and brandy (plus merignues and shortbread) for dessert.

On Sunday Richard P was the first out the hut  – went for a run before the drive back to York. Dave W and Mike headed for Idwal slabs – where the did ordinary route followed by an alpine style ascent of the Sub Cneifion arete.  Annie now a fan of the bus went off to Porth Madoc for a walk around the coast.  The rest of us went for a walk up Llwyd.  The weather had vastly improved – still windy but very little rain.  The scramble at the top of LLwyd was interesting with the occasional gust of wind.  We found shelter for lunch in the mines on the way back down and then had coffee and cake (well some of us had cake) before returning to the hut to pack up.

All in all a good weekend despite the forecast. The new hut was good – but with a few teething issues heating/hot water and door wise.  Having said that – the hut was plenty warm enough.