It was June 13th, and the start of a three week holiday off work. A friend of mine, Wes, and i decided to head to the hills of North Wales for a few days and attempt a bit of climbing. Leaving a bit later than expected due to repeatedly snoozed alarms, we made a good 130 mile run non-stop and finished off the trip shortly after. The campsite was situated just outside the national park, about a thirty minute drive, which was maybe a little too far to drive everyday to go climbing but we soon got used to it and the site's owner was pretty chilled which just added to the fact that it was empty, quiet, and real nice and clean. On the first day we drove around and i showed Wes the area as i have been there before a couple of times, the roads are incredible, it reminded me of the car advert where after a series of turns a picture perfect road appears and the sat nav reads "now, enjoy!". According to the weather forecast Tuesday was to be the clearest day of the
week and following this forecast we decided to take on Snowdon's Miners' track on that day. We made it up there in a little over two hours which with my current level of fitness at least, wasn't too bad. It was busy as usual up there with dozens of people enjoying the endless horizon and suprisingly summery atmosphere. We even had a little nap on the grass admiring the view below! This was now my third ascent of Mt. Snowdon and i must say i really enjoyed it just as much as the other times.
On Wednesday i wanted to try my luck on a second ascent of Tryfan, this is a little more technical than snowdon and tends to get a little edgy, i knew Wes would enjoy a bit of an adrenaline rush so we headed up there and tried the North Face of the mountain. The weather wasn't great and it was spitting with fine rain, we saw a group of people heading up there so we too decided to give it a go. About half an hour into the climb after we tackled one of the first scrambles, the rain grew thicker and providing
Wes didn't have proper hiking boots (only trail shoes), he was slipping on some of the footholds that should have otherwise been safe. I didn't want the day to end on the back of a Seaking rescue helicopter so after assessing the situation we decided it was probably best to head back down before it was too late and attempt the same route on a drier day with better footware. So for the rest of the day we visited some of the local waterfalls which were pretty cool, a fair bit of water flowing through them due to the past few day's percipitation.
On Thursday we found out that the weather wasn't going to improve, and without those proper shoes we were limited to just less exciting walks, so we opted for the lazy man's option and took the scenic route back home. We headed West to the coast and then headed down the A470 to explore the rest of Snowdonia's scenery, it was quite pleased with what we found on this scenic route, picture perfect forests, rolling hills, rocky faces and little traffic just about sums it all up. I'm glad we did that instead of taking the usual A5 straight back to England.
After about a good 8 hour run we were back home, exhausted but quite pleased to what we had achieved and with future plans to return to Tryfan and "knock that bastard off!".
I now have a week back home, again off work, and on Friday Millie and i are heading to Switzerland, the long way round. Driving through France it should take us between 14 and 16 hours to reach the scenic settlement of Nandez. It's something i have been looking forward to for a few months and i must admit i was even happier when she agreed to take the car rather than fly out there. There's something about a long distance drive and brings a smile to my face, perhaps its exploring unknown territory or just time to listen to music or sit quietly with nothing but the open road ahead.
Santiago
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