{"id":2235,"date":"2012-03-05T21:47:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T21:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2022-04-11T21:33:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:33:43","slug":"busy-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/busy-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy busy"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve just got back from a week in Snowdonia, staying in a cottage between Capel Curig and Snowdon. Well-placed for pretty much everything, really, so we got a lot done.<\/p>\n

First up was the Powerfan Plummet<\/a>, a climb up a 100ft pole followed by a jump off whilst attached to a ‘parachute simulator’. It essentially brakes your fall, and proved quite interesting but not as adrenaline-inducing as we’d hoped!<\/p>\n

\"The

The pole from which you jump to begin the 'plummet'. \u00a9 Paul Cordell 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"James

James pretending to be more scared than he actually is. \u00a9 Paul Cordell 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Day two was a pleasant dog walk around Llyn Gwynant in the morning (albeit resulting in a trip to the vet for one member of the party), followed by some wet laps of Idwal in the afternoon. Becs, Paul and James walked around \u00a0with the dog, while I ran three laps in increasingly strong wind and rain. Nevertheless, I had great fun!<\/p>\n

\"Running

Running along the northern end of Llyn Idwal. Apologies for the poor quality - it's a screen cap from a video, and with rain on the lens, but essentially it was very very wet. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

An all-abilities wander along the river at Betws y Coed on day three was a gentle half-day to offset a more strenuous walk up to a bothy in the Carneddau in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Nothing

Nothing says 'holiday' like hiding in a log. \u00a9 Helen Sumner 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

James, Jono, Gareth and I wiled away the evening playing cards, and woke to blue skies. The descent back to the car along Cefn-tal-llyn-Eigiau was rather scenic, and included some lenticular clouds too.<\/p>\n

\"Me,

Me, Gareth, James and Jono outside the bothy. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Enjoying

Enjoying the descent. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

After some lounging around we ventured north to Caernarfon, and I proceeded to put in a poor show at the karting track<\/a>. I usually get reasonable lap times, but I was feeling tired and so by round two it became a bit of a mission just to hold on into each corner! We were still all pretty evenly matched though, with half a second between our best times. That evening’s dog walk was livened up by a ‘buzzing’ from a Chinook helicopter, and a dramatic sunset over Snowdon.<\/p>\n

\"Low-flying

Low-flying Chinook over Llynau Mymbyr. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Day five started lazily, but soon increased in pace as we visited Beddgelert to see what the new forestry commission biking trails are like. They’re all at the tame end of the spectrum, but with people starting to feel the effects of a fairy hectic week that probably wasn’t a bad thing. My hopes of getting to the Marin or Penmachno trails for a good blast were dashed by the presence of a wobbly crank arm and the ripping of a large hole in the sidewall of my rear tyre. Darn slate!<\/p>\n

\"The

The obstacles get a little too technical to ride. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

The weather continued the week’s theme of ‘cloudy ‘ when we woke up on day six. Parking at Pen y Gwryd for the morning dog walk and heading up towards Carnedd y Cribau, we soon climbed above the cloud and could see the pocket of poor visibility in which the cottage was sitting.<\/p>\n

\"Our

Our cottage is somewhere at the bottom of that cloud! \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Caesar

Caesar enjoying his morning walk. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

After dispatching that, we headed over to Penmachno for a trip around the Rhiwbach slate mine (technically a quarry, actually), run by Go Below<\/a>. This wasn’t a standard tour, involving as it did tyrollean traverses, abseils, a bit of climbing, and via-ferrata style roped sections. All very exciting, and not a hint of a handrail, concrete step or electric light anywhere in the mine. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"James

James and Paul strap in to head to the mine. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"James

James heading into Rhiwbach slate mine. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Me

Me on the tyrollean traverse. \u00a9 James Devine 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"James

James abseiling down to the chamber floor. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Intrepid

Intrepid explorers \/ tour clients. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This

This is the only remaining incline bridge made of timber IN THE WORLD! All the others are either made of stone or have rotted away. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The beast which took us to and from Rhiwbach. An ex-army gun tractor with a 3.9L V8 engine, that's served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Germany. Mental. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

We emerged at the top of the mine that afternoon into glorious sunshine, which continued all the way back to the cottage. Snowdon just looked too tempting as we approached from Capel Curig, so I grabbed my running stuff and set off from Pen y Pass up the Pyg track. I got as far as Bwlch Glas, but turned back at that point to help \/ watch a rescue of a climber with a suspected dislocated shoulder from the broken ground between the Pyg track and Crib Goch.<\/p>\n

\"Sunset

Sunset from Bwlch Glas. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

The precision and control demonstrated by the crew of the RAF Sea King is something that you really can’t appreciate until you see it up close (and I’m speaking as someone who watches a lot of Highland Emergency<\/a>!).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The RAF Sea King about to despatch a winchman to an injured climber below Crib Goch. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

By the time I’d spoken to various Llanberis<\/a> MRT<\/abbr> people on the way down, it was going dark and I was treated to a lovely sunset and a torch-lit run back to the car at Pen y Gwryd.<\/p>\n

\"Night

Night falls over Snowdon and Llyn Llydaw. \u00a9 Haydn Williams 2012<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve just got back from a week in Snowdonia, staying...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[862,825,856,857,420,860,859,858,864,863,861,276],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors","tag-bothy","tag-carneddau","tag-cottage","tag-cwm-clorad-isaf","tag-fell-running","tag-go-below","tag-mine","tag-mountain-biking","tag-plummet","tag-powerfan","tag-rhiwbach","tag-riding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}