Welsh 3000's 2005/6

Introduction
On the 2005/6 trip 14 people started from Pen-y-Pas at 4am, with only 4 finishing the complete route (Catherine Jones, John Weeks, Richard Andrews, Hereward Cooper) in atroucious weather. Having a GPS was more than useful for navigation onto Yr Elen, though map and compass was used for the rest of the navigation over the Carnedds.

A wee walk in Wales: a personal perspective on the Welsh 3ks
It began in the early hours of Saturday morning, at a time that most students are probably more accustomed to going to bed at, rather than getting up. Two weeks earlier I had been crawling into bed at 3:30am. This weekend I was rolling out of bed, putting on walking clothes and shovelling down Wheatabix, tea and a Penguin (non-feathered). None of us had any problems waking. We were all already awake courtesy of the fire alarm at 1:40am.

Before I knew where I was, I was jammed into a minibus, the stereo blaring out the Proclaimers on Dublin FM as it drifted over the Irish Sea. Through Llanberis, past Nantperis and up to Pen-y-pas. This was it. Time to start walking.

Walking up Snowdon in the dark should be straight forwards. The Pyg track is a motorway. Half way up Snowdon it was going well. I was feeling good and though it was raining, it was ok. Then came the hail, followed by the snow, followed by the realisation that the waterproof trousers were going to have to go on. I had wet feet from water dripping from my trousers and into my boots. It got worse. We lost the Pyg track in the snow. I am no expert in challenge walking, but I think a good start to the day does not entail scrabbling in the dark and a blizzard up soft snow onto the ridge between Snowdon and Crib y Ddysgl and then starting the welsh 3ks on the wrong top, Garnedd Ugain. “Bugger” sums it up pretty well. On the plus side at least I knew where we were and with map and compass in hand we set off for Snowdon. On the minus side we had just lost half an hour of precious time. We would have been ahead of everyone except Dave M and Richard B if we hadn’t messed up.

Half an hour (and another Penguin) later we were back at the trig point on Crib y Ddysgl/Garnedd Ugain. The most exciting and technical bit of the day now lay in front of us: Crib Goch. To add to the fun it had a thin layer of wet, fresh snow on it. I loved this section. It was cloudy, but the visibility was fine for what we were doing. It was now light, there was no wind, the hail and rain had stopped and we had Crib Goch all to ourselves; stark contrast to the traffic jams on the ridge in September. We heard the sounds of the group ahead on the screes, we saw their footprints on the ridge, but other than that, no other souls could be detected.

The Welsh 3000s lets you see things like Crib Goch in this kind of magic way. You have it to yourself. You can truly appreciate it, its harsh, steep sides and the greatness of these mountains. You have to concentrate with each footstep, you can only think about the scramble, the ridge and nothing else. Then you reach the scree. Woohoo! After the intensity of Crib Goch there was the fun of sliding down the hillside on a raft of stones, followed by passing the beauty of Llyn Glas. This was followed by the urge to get down to check point 1 and the bacon butty and mug of tea that was waiting.

Check Point 1
Arriving at Check Point 1 there were two surprises. Firstly most people were still there and secondly that not everyone had done Crib Goch. Also we had only arrived at check point 2 10mins after the group ahead of us, we had gained 20mins on them over Crib Goch and the descent. After a bite to eat it was up into the Glyders. This was when the training really paid off. Once up Elidir Fawr, it was a nice bit of walking. I was feeling good and on the way up Y Garn I felt the energy from breakfast hit the system. I was on a high at this point and thoroughly enjoying myself. I wanted to run the downhill sections and was bouncing along. The others were feeling good too. Compared to two years previously where that attempt had been my first time through these hills, knowing the hills this time and knowing what was coming helped so much. The weather had cleared up, so there was no need for map and compass and we caught up with the lads in front of us.

However for the last part Tryfan was as evil as ever. To scramble or climb on Tryfan is a fantastic day out. To try to clamber over boulders at speed to reach the top is just frustrating, especially as going down the boulders is just as fast as going up the damn things. Once again I found myself on the top of Tryfan looking slightly dishevelled and for the umpteenth time the weather was too windy to allow jumping from Adam to Eve. However once on the path to Ogwen you can let fly, run past Lake Australia and run to Check Point 2. Weeeeeeee!

Check Point 2
Check point 2 is wonderful. You get to eat Supernoodles that are luminous green and taste nice. You can go to the toilet. You can re-stock on Penguins and make some more squash for the next stage. You also get to hear the gossip of the day. I think it was whilst at check point 2 though that I started to get cold. I had had wet feet since about 6am and falling in two streams whilst descending to check point 1 had not helped matters. This had lead to bouts of numb feet and had not done the tendons in my ankles much good. However I had passed the pain barrier somewhere up Elidir Fawr and my legs just kept walking, regardless of whether my feet were numb or my ankles hurting. So four of us set off up into the Carnedds: Richard A, John W, Cooper and I, armed with GPS, map, compass, much food and a large amount of grit and determination.

To start with it was a bit windy but apart from that it was ok. Then we got to Carnedd Dafydd and you had to fight the wind to get into the shelter. But it was still light and we were feeling good. So we had another Penguin. It was probably going round onto Yr Elen that it properly started to become an epic.

It was dark and hailing. The hail went through all your clothes and stang you. It was windy, so windy that rucksack straps thwacked you in the face all the time. The lights in Bethesda twinkled away. It was like they were teasing us to come down and leave the miserable weather and this increasingly epic final leg behind. We’d got this far though after the horrific weather on the first stage and we were not going to be beaten!

Then Cooper’s head torch failed. The solution was seemingly simple: new batteries were needed. It failed to turn on. For what seemed like an age (probably about 5minutes) it would not work. I was starting to work out how to escape down to Bethesda with 3 head torches between the four of us. However, fortunately a high-tech solution was found: tape the connection to the battery. Voila! Light again! We could continue on our mission.

From Yr Elen we ascended Carnedd Llewlyn and we were all cold. We had a very brief eating stop sheltered behind a large rock near the summit. We knew though that however cold we were feeling, it was just a case now of getting down, via the last few tops. From Foel Fras we began the descent and it went a bit wrong. We ended up coming down too early from the fence, ending up at the lake and not the track. There was some confusion over grid references at this point as we were all mentally tired, but in the end it was clear that if we just walked north and did not cross the river then we would have to hit the track. So we bush-wacked north and found the track.

Onto the track and then it was strange. We just walked and walked. My legs just kept walking and my brain gave up demanding a stop for juice and chocolate. Two head torches failed, but we just kept going. People were hallucinating. The wind went. We kept walking. We walked for what seemed like an age and then came round a corner. We could see the minibus. It flashed at us. Torches came out, people coming up to meet us. Someone wondered if it was our friends? Well who else is going to be loitering at the end of the Aber Falls road in the wee, small hours on a Sunday morning?

In the bus there was food. Everyone found something they really liked, or maybe craved after such an epic final leg, be it peanuts, raisins, bread or chocolate. At the hut the support team gave us spaghetti. We were too tired to eat. Damp, cold and exhausted, three of us had done it. I took my boots off. My feet stared back at me: cold, damp and numb. We had done the Welsh 3000s. Never again. Well, not until next year…..

Afterthought:
Despite the epic nature of the final leg and the whole day in general, some positives can very definitely be taken from the experience. Firstly we had navigated our way through the hills in the dark and rotten weather. We had battled the elements from the beginning. In retrospect, if we had been going up Snowdon on a normal day’s walk in those conditions on the Pyg Track, would we have continued onwards? I am not sure. However we were always able to escape easily and Crib Goch was fine. In addition this was different to a day hike. On a day hike you always have to think about the person who is there that you don’t know and don’t know what they are capable of. Should we have continued on the final leg in such horrible weather? Possibly yes and possibly no. The escape route to Bethesda would have been just as hard to navigate in the dark as finishing was, and once we were descending we quickly got out of the worst of the weather. One definite recommendation to come out of this experience is that groups on the final stage should carry a spare head torch in the group, in addition to spare batteries.

Acknowledgement:
A big thankyou to the support team of James Collingwood and Jon Lavender. Also to Richard Balmer who came out with them to collect us in the depths of the night from the end. Thanks and congratulations must also go to John Weeks and Hereward Cooper who also completed the challenge, and to Richard Andrews who completed all but Crib Goch. In addition thanks must go to everyone else who attempted because without lots of people attempting, the event could not go ahead.

Just keep walking!