Reunion on Tryfan
Following my recent scramble on Tryfan and Bristly Ridge I received a Facebook Comment from an old university friend saying: “Always wanted to do this route! Good to see you better.”
Then, last week, Mike, that same university friend messaged me saying: “Heading to Tryfan / Bristley Ridge on the 10th Sept if you fancy another little climb?”
I think what he really meant is that he was hoping to do Tryfan and Bristly Ridge but would really like someone to show him the route up Bristly Ridge so would I like to join them. I of course decided it would be a good excuse for anther scramble in North Wales so plans were made.
I met Mike and his friends Paul and Kathy on Saturday morning in the car park alongside Llyn Ogwen. I hadn’t seen him for 25 years but immediately recognised him as he’s barely changed and we got on straight away. We were friends at University, doing the same course and usually in the same peer group but never ‘best friends’ and never really ‘knew’ each other that well. It was a relatively small year group doing geology and our group of friends was a mall sub-section of that group but even so, male friends at univeristy were never really that close. That wasn’t what male students at university really did. We went to lectures sometimes, we went to pubs quite a lot of the time and basically got up to ‘studenty’ things but we were never really close and so hadn’t been in touch or seen each other since graduation.
It was fine though we were soon chatting, catching up with what each other were up to now and reminiscing about other members of our year group and the things we got up to. Mikes friends Kathy and Paul were nice too and I was also chatting to them and getting to know them. Kathy wasn’t necessarily into hill walking and definitely not scrambling but she was doing this to raise money for a charity local to her so it was good that it was quite a challenge for her. She needed a bit of help here and there and was definitely out of her comfort zone much of the time but we encouraged and helped her through it and I think she kind of enjoyed it! Even if she didn’t ‘enjoy’ it I think she was probably glad that she did it and that we encouraged her to do the more challenging bits too. She might have wished we didn’t at the times but now that she’s home safely with a sense of achievement I’m sure she pleased with it. She’s raising money for the Daisy Programme and The Rowan Project so feel free to donate.
Slippery Scramble
We left the car park in misty. Murky conditions unable to see our route for the day.
The walk up to the first stile was atually quite difficult. The wet weather made the rocks super slippery and the going was slow and treacherous. The forecast was for a nice dry day but that wasn’t the case yet. We made our way gingerly through the rock field and finally made it to better ground over the wall at the base of Tryfan’s North Ridge.
Tryfan
Kathy looked a little nervous as we started the scramble. I led the way, followed by Mike, Kathy and Paul bringing up the rear – We were helping Kathy by pointing out hand holds, showing her the way and occasionally hand holding. Paul was helping from behind, supporting her and occasionally pushing her. Judging by the comments, rather than bringing up the rear I think it was more like ‘touching up the rear’!!
We were all having a good chat as we went. As we pushed higher things became a little wetter for a while so it was on with the waterproofs as we conintued our way up past the Cannon Stone. There were a few cuts and brusises here and there and progress was relatively slow but we were getting there and everyone was happy.
We stopped for snacks once or twice, met a few other climbers and eventually topped out at the Aam and Eve stones at the top of Tryfan. The clouds had cleared a little by now and we had good views all around. Sometime a little atmospheric as the clouds rolled in.
Bristly Ridge
We desended a little, stopped for lunch and then it was decided that we would split up. Sinister Gulley and Bristly Ridge would be too much for Paul and Kathy so we showed them the easiest route back down while Mike and I continued down into the saddle and then up towards Sinister Gulley. Mike had been wanting to do this for ages so was looking forward to it but also a little nervous as he looked up into the near vertical gulley. I once again led the way as we climbed up on good holds. Mike had one or two little moments in the gulley but we made it through unscathed and emerged out onto Bristly Ridge for more good scrambling.
Mike did say he had been pretty scared at points and his facebook post at the end of the day said:
I think he had fun! 🙂
Glyders
With the scrambling complete for the day it was onto the Glyders once again with the obligatory stop at the Cantilever Stone. We did try for the ‘jumping ont he cantilver’ photo but I think our jumps were probbaly the most pathetic ever!
Actually, I’ve got an idea….. Come on Mike that jump was pathetic, be more ‘Alan’.
With Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr behind up it was a steady descent down to and then through the Devils Kitchen to Cwm Idwal.
We were still chatting all the way and getting on well. It was really nice to ctach up after all these years. With a short walk around Llyn Idwal and back to the car. We could now see Tryfan and Bristly Ridge from the road,
It had been a long day with over 10 hours on the hill.
No recoreds were broken but we’d had a good day out and much was achieved. Hopefully it won’t be another 25 years until I see Mike again. I don’t think it will as we were already making plans for further adventures.
2 Responses
-
[…] Mike replied saying that he’d always wanted to do that and before long we we got together to scramble up Tryfan and Bristly Ridge together. We had a good day and obviously vowed to do it again without a 25 year hiatus. We hadn’t […]
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Wow obviously Mike is as mad as you ! Huge congratulations to Kathy one very brave lady .Hope you fee, proud and your charity gains ,well done