Oh Dear! I thought as I looked at the news on Thursday night. Those tightly curled isobars do not look good for this weekends trip to North Wales. Still, I thought to myself, even a rainy day in Wales beats a day doing chores at home!

So that was my start to what turned out to be an excellent weekend all around! It was a weekend of many firsts too:

• A first for Scottish Power to be called out to North Wales in the middle of the night to repair the line in to the power transformer for the hut
• The first epic trip for a newbie - learning how to use a rope and completing a grade 2 scramble up Tryfan on their first ever trip away
• The first time no-one has been up to the pub for dinner - WOW!
• The first time ever in January in North Wales it was fine for several hours each day - even though it was the weekend!
• The first big adventure for Rob's new mountain bike

With 17 people coming away for the weekend there were plenty of different activities however the favourite without a doubt was the ascent of Tryfan. Eleven of us ascended Tryfan this weekend! That could be a club first too! For a complete list of the walks and bike rides check out the list below...

Saturday 18th January 2003

• Mountain Biking the Marin Trail in the Gwydyr Forest near Betws y Coed. What can I say, but a superb piece of mountain bike trail construction with good solid uphills, and twisty turny downhills. 18 miles with 700m of ascent. Look at the Welsh Tourist Board's mountain biking website for more information. (RC, NL, SN, DF, RH).
• Heather Terrace up to the North Ridge up Tryfan, a traverse of the ridge down to Capel and back along the raod. Some minor navigational issues due to a compass "not working" (or should that have been compass operator error?). (RW, IW, DN).
• Up the ridge behind the hut Braich y Ddeugwm, followed track down to Capel Curig, then over the A5 to Crimpiau west along a water cut and then back back to the hut (LP, DS, PG, PF, JF)
• Carneddau - Pen yr Ole Wen to Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn. Very windy and some snow. Good views and sunshine too! (MR, ML).
• Practice rope work on Little Tryfan following by an ascent of the North Buttress of Tryfan, a grade 2 scramble. For a first trip with SMOG it was rather an epic, however Kevin came back smiling at the end of the day so he must have enjoyed it! (TN, K)

Well wrapped up for Mountain Biking

and on Sunday:

• Mountain biking around Moel Hebog from the Beddgelert Forest up to Bwlch-y-Ddwy-elor, along the dismantled railway in Cwm Pennant. Up past Llyn Cwmystradllyn (Reservoir) through the Gorseddau Quarry and over the hill to the A498. This route may possibly have involved some paths that are yet to be designated bridleways! In fact "paths" may be an overstatement as well. (NL, RH, DF, SN).
• Trefriw to Llyn Cowlyd Reservoir over Pen Llithrig y Wrach, down to the leat and back to the hut. (TN, DN, K).
• Tryfan via the North Ridge (IW, RW, DS, PG, LP, ML, MR)

Making lunch

Last Updated: 13 Oct 2005	© Slough Mountaineering Group	contact us