The second weekend trip of the academic year was the first trip to Snowdonia this year and the first trip in 30 without our current President Andrew; it saw us staying in the Tan-Y-Garth Bunkhouse at Capel Curig, a new one for the Club. The first day saw a whole battalion of varying weather conditions from sunny, to rainy, to snowy with a light scattering of rainbows. Nevertheless, the majority of the groups ventured up Tryfan by all manner of routes, despite the rather interestingly slippery rocks. No one attempted the jump between Adam and Eve. The other group had baggers; I care little of what they did. In the evening, perhaps to avoid singing, one group went out on a relatively short night hike to set off some fireworks while the others sang along to Paul’s amazing accompaniment which consisted of him (relatively successfully) playing the guitar and blowing keyboard/harmonica simultaneously. The second day had beautiful weather consisting of sun and relatively clear skies for the majority of the day. A group of 12 took the pleasant walk up Moel Siabod, another up Snowdon and the others did something else. In summary the trip was not a disaster despite Andrew’s greatest fears.
Vicky Ward, Peter Kirkwood, Joe Hobbs, Jo Smith, Dave Farrow, David Pettit, Tom Ashton, Valerie Ashton, Laura Dempsey, Helene Wolleb, Katie Atkinson, Paul Cook, Jasper van Bruckem, Nienke Blom, Thomas Leach, Phillip Withnall, Phil Brown, Alex Elliot, Constanze, Yuchin Li, Aga Wabik, Carme Culdach, Pablo Hernandez & Josh Jones. Lewis Herbert helped out by driving on the trip, but stayed at an independent location from us.
Jo S, Dave, Joe, Laura, Helene, Jasper & Nienke
We drove to Llyn Ogwen and (deliberately) left the key in the bus for Tom to break into and steal later. Then we went up Tryfan's North Ridge. We had a Cannon faff. We found some iced rocks near the top and slipped off a few. We subsequently decided that it was not a day for jumping between Adam & Eve, or indeed for continuing up Bristly Ridge. Instead we traversed to the Glyders ridge, where a lengthy discussion ensued about whether we could be bothered to go up Glyder Fach. Joe eventually decided we couldn't, whereupon the rest of us mutinied and went up it anyway. Then we retraced our steps and continued down the ridge (via two Nuttalls, we were later reliably informed) to Capel Curig. A pretty good day all in all, with sunshine on Tryfan, snow on Glyder Fach and rain to finish Classic Snowdonia.
Tom L, Alex, Phil & Phil
Having carefully arranged for the weather to be nice in the morning, we got the minibus to the foot of Tryfan, and had a great scramble up. Mostly clear skies gave great views. The gang was a bit slower near the top as the rocks were covered in a thin layer of frozen rain (or ice, as some people know it). This turned out to be slippery and to cause numbness of the hands. From the top of Tryfan, we descended back to the road, crossed over and went straight back up Pen yr Ole Wen. This was rapid and screeful. The sun was out for much of the ascent, so everyone stripped off (some of) their clothes. Somewhere between Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Llewelyn, it started snowing. This was not in the plan for the weather. It was quite fun. From there, we continued along to Penywaun-wen, then descended to the east of Ffynnan Llugwy resevoir. From there, we had a long and rapid descent along farm tracks to the A5. This was not so fun. The return to ground level may have been rapid enough to give people the bends. We got back at ~17.00, having only got lost between Capel Curig and the bunkhouse once.
This trip has been referred to at least once as 'The Trip Without Andrew' - i.e. the first of that type in 30.
Question: How long did it take Andrew (see epitaph here) to text the Trip Leader after the trip had left?
Answer: 3 minutes. This exceeded expectations of those on the trip.
Bets had been taken: