Went with my pal Adrian to Snowdonia on thursday to knock off Tryfan. We scrambled up the North Face, with the intention of descended to Bwlch Tryfan & going up Bristly Ridge onto the Glyders, then round to Devil's Kitchen to descend to Llyn Idwal, but we'd underestimated the time it'd take us to do Tryfan (route finding being the main problem & a "better safe than sorry" ideology in finding the right way up)...4 hours later we hit the summit & called off the scramble up Bristly Ridge (to my relief, I must admit !).
Tryfan (915m)
Getting over the initial tiresome effort of going up the steep slopes to the base of the ridge proper, we settled in to finding the beginning of it....something we took a while over & we're still not sure we found the text-book starting point !
About a third of the way up, me looking over Llyn Ogwen
Tryfan's famous "Cannon", just over halfway up.
At the same point...the A5 looks a long way down now !
Some real awkward stuff followed, we had hailstorms, one while I was perched on a large slab which sloped diagonally away to thin air and a trip home in a wooden box...sitting that out gave me time to think about the mountain rescue helicopter which flew around most of the day!
Then there were difficult towers of rock to overcome & lots of 3-points-of-contact stuff.
Here, we're just passing one of the many routes up from the East side, a steep chute, presumably heading down to Heather Terrace.
Once on the summit, there was no chance for heroics, as the wind had whipped right up...no way was I to risk climbing up onto, and jumping from Adam to Eve & back (the two large boulders that mark the summit)...
....especially as this awaited anyone daft enough who slipped (and the wind was blowing this way, too !!)
So, we headed down the comparitively simple south ridge to Bwlch Tryfan, where we had a late lunch, sheltered on the eastern slopes. That's more hail falling in the valley.
Bristly ridge...saving that one for another day!
Llyn Bochlwyd, or Lake Australia, as it's known.
Glyder Fach, Glyder Fawr, Gribin Ridge & Y Garn, with Lake Australia below the panorama.
The same range, but from lower down with Tryfan stuck on the left
We extended the walk back to the car, and terra firma, to at least look at the daunting Devil's Kitchen, the dark chasm at the top middle of this pic...we were to scramble down inside that & finish off the walk in style, but time had conspired against us.
Back at the Idwal Cottage, looking up the Nant Ffrancon valley towards Bethesda
Tryfan (915m)
Getting over the initial tiresome effort of going up the steep slopes to the base of the ridge proper, we settled in to finding the beginning of it....something we took a while over & we're still not sure we found the text-book starting point !
About a third of the way up, me looking over Llyn Ogwen
Tryfan's famous "Cannon", just over halfway up.
At the same point...the A5 looks a long way down now !
Some real awkward stuff followed, we had hailstorms, one while I was perched on a large slab which sloped diagonally away to thin air and a trip home in a wooden box...sitting that out gave me time to think about the mountain rescue helicopter which flew around most of the day!
Then there were difficult towers of rock to overcome & lots of 3-points-of-contact stuff.
Here, we're just passing one of the many routes up from the East side, a steep chute, presumably heading down to Heather Terrace.
Once on the summit, there was no chance for heroics, as the wind had whipped right up...no way was I to risk climbing up onto, and jumping from Adam to Eve & back (the two large boulders that mark the summit)...
....especially as this awaited anyone daft enough who slipped (and the wind was blowing this way, too !!)
So, we headed down the comparitively simple south ridge to Bwlch Tryfan, where we had a late lunch, sheltered on the eastern slopes. That's more hail falling in the valley.
Bristly ridge...saving that one for another day!
Llyn Bochlwyd, or Lake Australia, as it's known.
Glyder Fach, Glyder Fawr, Gribin Ridge & Y Garn, with Lake Australia below the panorama.
The same range, but from lower down with Tryfan stuck on the left
We extended the walk back to the car, and terra firma, to at least look at the daunting Devil's Kitchen, the dark chasm at the top middle of this pic...we were to scramble down inside that & finish off the walk in style, but time had conspired against us.
Back at the Idwal Cottage, looking up the Nant Ffrancon valley towards Bethesda
so leave your jeep at home & get your boots on !
