Training Log Archive: Abarrie

Tryfan and the Glyders

from the campsite at Gwern gof Isaf, starting with Tryfan and finishing on Carnedd y Filiast, with a few outliers along the way. Felt naturally sluggish to start with, for probably a few reasons but worked well cos the first hour was quite technical, genuinely moving faster up Tryfan than down it. Took a wrong turn after the Bwlch, and tried to correct too harshly and cut up my hands falling on my ass. A definite low point, followed by more stupidly difficult nav out/back to Y Foel Goch, thankfully just about held things together in the mist then the Glyders, which weren’t as demanding on the nav side but seemingly endless dripping wet boulder fields almost had me on my knees. Things cleared nicely as I was descending to the Devils kitchen (he wasn’t cooking Welsh cakes sadly :(), and from here the mood was a lot better and I was finally making good progress along to the outlying Elidir Fawr, by which time the unrelenting mizz had been replaced with gale force wind. Happily summited the tenth and last ‘peak’ for the day, then dropped steeply down into the valley and finished with a delightful chop along the track straight to Bethesda Tescos, which looked remarkably like a temple… had to wait a bit for the bus back but a small price to pay for the point to point day out. Might be worth waiting for a clear and dry day next time?

Campsite into the village to catch the bus, then between runs later on

Moel-Siabod from Pen-y-Gwryd.

Just a formality/warm up really before the meat of the day, very wet underfoot for most of it, doesn’t see much traffic clearly, and low cloud concealing many a false summit, but an excellent grassy ridge for the top half making a fast descent. Sheep don’t discriminate against altitude in these parts.

Snowdon horseshoe.

A lot of anticipation building up to this, legs felt pretty leaden walking the couple k across to pen y pass but can probably put that down to the saturated tent I was carrying. Found a nice bush to hide everything in and attacked the pyg path, thought I was gonna be late to the party today but apparently everyone starts at 1100 anyway. After a short while passed all the signs telling you about crib gochs foibles, then scrambled up onto crib goch itself trying to look as professional as possible, given that I wasn’t even wearing a bag lol. Felt confident enough so stayed on the crest of the ridge through the difficult bit, although it was so clagged in that the exposure was kind of cancelled out. Took the odd ego boost from scampering past various parties of blokes coaxing their wives along, and with a few fiddly steps was onto Carnedd Ugain. Then across to Snowdon itself, which is truly underwhelming, everyone and their nan queuing to take a pic on top, and stank of ciggies and poo.

Glad to run away as fast as possible, took a very direct line towards Y Lliwedd, cos my phone had locked me out for an hour at this point, so was very thankful when things cleared, confirming that I wasn’t lost. One more rocky ascent, then steeply down to the lake and an easy last couple miles back to the car park, in which there happened to be a bus about to leave, crazy flow state tings. Another incredible day in the hills, starting to pay for it a tad now though, probably some kind of rest in order tomorrow :)

The Berwyns from Llandrillo.

Another banger of a morning out. Seems to me that the lesser known/travelled hills have a lot of potential for class routes. Felt a bit sluggish initially but built into it and felt as least as good as yesterday on the climbs, and then really got cooking on the descent this time which was a lot of fun. Fair bit of tussock bashing in here to save some distance but lots of good trods as well and was surprised to find miles of boardwalk laid out along between the tops, Llandrillians don’t like getting wet feet apparently? Also can proudly put my hr data on here and say that it’s fully back where it should be.

Moel Hebog from Beddgelert ish.

Post long afternoon spent negotiating local buses, then trespassing onto a campsite which wasn’t even open, then getting bawled at before being driven 2 miles on the back of a quad with an 81 yo ‘self made man’ who gave me some valuable life advice. Got a bit disoriented leaving the park, but once going uphill I found a nice rhythm and winched up, some easy scrambling towards the top and then a summit ‘dome’ which felt a bit like conquering Everest if it was grass instead of snow. Loved this hill probably my favourite thus far.

From Drws y Nant, up through the tussocks to Aran Fawddwy and then along the tops and down to Llanuwchllyn.

Carrying all my stuff for this, but still more of a march than a walk. No cloud today so views were class. Stopped to talk on the way down what felt like 100s of times, everyone lovely and keen to know if I’d already been up :) nicely breaking up a long and tedious descent, apparently has a hill race this one.

From Llanuwchllyn (having responsibly left everything I care about in a bush) out to Arenig Fawr and its two summits.

This would one of the best runs I’ve ever done, felt like a million dollars as soon as I dropped my bag, knew I was leaving a bit less than three hours to do this and get the steam train to Bala, had no idea if it was doable. Tried to make the long run out more exciting by trying a dotted line on the way out, which backfired when I had to bash through some dark green for a few hundred metres, thankfully got back onto a track fairly quickly, and pressed on to Cwm Tylo. From here - about 5k in - was pure terrain, some tussock, some marsh, some rock, and too many painful hedgerow crossings. Still felt really good on the way out, no second thoughts about b lining straight up the crags, and then after a brief stop on top, took a much better line back, although similar just more well thought out, then back onto the track for the plod back to the choccy milk shop, then sprint to the station, where the train didn’t even leave on time, despite having timed 6 hours in the hills to complete perfection. Felt like a real adventure this one, and having the facilities to pull it off makes it all the better. Joyful.

Cadair Idris from Cwmrhyddfor

Hyped to get into the hills after yesterdays shenanigans, spent half the day trying to get a doctors appointment lol. Woke up this morning feeling and looking a lot better, so decided to send. Headed up to Llyn Cau first, then into the cloud for the four different summits, had a bit of fun with the fog nav but nothing too techy. Rumour has it this is a very exciting hill on a good day. Highlight was trying to explain to a guy where I was staying, Welsh pronunciation can only get better…