Repetition. Deviation. Hesitation. Gary and I broke all three rules of Just a Minute with our route choices on a recent trip to Snowdonia.
We met up on Friday night, and spent a windy and rainy night in the camper van. Saturday morning started with more of the same, so a leisurely start involving bacon butties saw us set off up the North Ridge of Tryfan at 11:00. This was the first rule broken: repetition. Gary and I have done this route more times than either of us can remember, but this time we thought we'd provide a bit more interest through the breaking of the second rule: deviation. Rather than take the route we're both familiar with, we started far more centrally up the ridge and managed to find a very long stretch of sustained interesting scrambling. In doing so, we took great delight in clambering over bits of the ridge we'd never even seen before – there are some great lines to play around on if you just pick your way up. I'm not suggesting this was a rarely-trodden route; there were footprints, crampon scratches and polish everywhere, but it certainly kept us entertained. We finished up the nose, where Gary managed to predict exactly the number of people who would be sat having lunch on the summit.
Starting up Ordinary Route (Diff). Climber at the top is just about the belay I'm heading for. Copyright Haydn Williams 2011. Photo by Gary Mirams.
We found ourselves at Bwlch Tryfan at 13:30, wondering what to do with the rest of our day. Our first plan that morning had been to look at Ordinary Route (Diff) on Idwal slabs. Although the rain first thing had put us off, everything was drying out nicely so we decided to descend back to the van and then visit the slabs. This we duly did, with a detour to the brew shack to pick up a sausage roll for Gary! We arrived at the slabs late afternoon and then had to queue to get on the route, which turned out to be bone dry most of the way up. I had unfinished business with Ordinary Route, having attempted it on an MPS trip a couple of years ago and been robustly rebuffed. We eventually got onto the rock, and I led the first long pitch. We alternated from there, with no real dramas to speak of. It's a nice route with no real difficulties, although I'd imagine pitch three is a bit disconcerting in the rain in big boots. The descent, however, did get exciting and led to our final Just a Minute rule break: hesitation. I'd read plenty of descriptions of the down-climb / abseil as horrible, and it turned out to be true. It's very polished, with the potential for a nasty fall if you did take a slip. Anyway, we eventually abbed off and it wasn't as nasty as it looked from above (I'd still ab next time too, though!).
This belay was a thing of beauty; I only wish I could have photographed the whole thing in one shot. Copyright Haydn Williams 2011.
Coming off the hill late, we realised that no pubs would still be serving food, so had to venture into Bangor. KFC at 22:30 on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend is certainly an interesting place to be, and we scoffed our sub-standard fare at a rate of knots before heading back up to the van. On our return, there were still headtorches flashing around halfway up Milestone Buttress, so we headed over to see if everything was alright. By the time we reached the bottom of the path, the pair had descended and were perfectly happy – turns out they'd only started at 19:30 so fully expected to finish in the dark!
Gary starting up the final pitch. Copyright Haydn Williams 2011.
Sunday morning's weather was another stinker, so we opted for another of my wet-weather favourites: Daear Ddu on Moel Siabod. Gary hadn't done the ridge before, and the cloud lifted just as we approached it across the cwm. It proved good sport as ever, and we actually had some decent views from the summit. That took care of more repetition, and so we then undertook some more deviation from previous routes on our return north, sticking to the top ridge-line rather than dropping with the main path and then contouring around. I can't believe I've never done that before – it was brilliant! A lovely craggy ridge with the cwm dropping away to your right, and far more rocky interest than the motorway path on the Dyffryn Mymbyr side of the hill. Highly recommended, and further proof that even familiar places and still provide nice suprises.
Sunday - Looking towards the southern half of the national park from Daer Ddu. Copyright Haydn Williams 2011.
Returning to the car park, we set off home. I suspected our journeys back would be carried out at slightly different paces, given that Gary was in the van and I had borrowed a 182BHP Renaultsport Clio for the weekend. The pair were diplomatically described by a passer-by as "the tortoise and the hare". This assessment proved accurate, though, as Gary got away from the car park cleanly, but I ended up stuck in slow-moving traffic for a significant portion of the journey home! Still, another successful weekend, and I finally got to climb Idwal Slabs after 30 years of walking under them. Result.
The Tortoise and the Hare. Copyright Haydn Williams 2011.
