Went mountain climbing and actually did it!

[Brettus]

I've always thought when driving/riding past the mountains in wales, wouldn't it be nice to walk up one of those? But that sentiment pays no attention to the fact I am an overweight desk worker with a BMI that feels higher than my IQ (and I'm not a dumbass!)

Turns out my mate had thought the same thing from time to time and we were looking for an excuse for a photo trip so we went. I'd had my eye on Glyder Fawr since walking up and around Llyn Idwal as a geography student in high school, turns out its the 3rd highest peak in wales! sat neatly (geographically) between the 1st and 2nd too.

The weather looked good on Saturday so off we went, I parked my bike up in a car park near Chester, met up with Knapster and we went the rest of the way in his car. After chatting too much I thought "cool, theres Menai bridge...... wait, what?! thats Menai bridge!, what are we doing here?" a quick turn around and we headed back along the A5 and found the car park I'd seen so many times on google earth while weighing this trip up. full of enthusiasm and described so well by the phrase "all the gear, no idea" we had backpacks loaded with stuff, walking poles, drink, food, spare clothes and of course cameras.

after making it round to the back of Llyn Idwall (which looked a heck of a lot lower on google earth!) we were almost knackered, verging on the idea of doing the Llyn circuit and heading back as this was a stupid idea, two reasonably unfit geeks scaling the 3rd highest mountain in wales. We had lunch and took some waterfall pictures and things, we couldn't see where people were heading as they wandered up around the path but didn't seem to come back down the other side

Turns out, theres a path ominously called Devil's Kitchen that ascends almost vertically, the back of Cwm Idwal, being idiots we decided that one mad scramble to the top would do it, we can make this, this looks achievable! I can't begin to describe how misguided this thought was, we passed lots of climbers making their way down, one of them we spoke to said we were about 1/4 the way up I was pretty sure he was joking as we had made it to quite an altitude already but we carried on anyway.

As we were climbing we heard the mountain rescue helicopter passing by, a few minutes later it was back, and headed right into the Cwm! I found out afterwards from BBC news, a 62 year old climber had injured his leg and needed air lifting, we couldn't tell if it was a training exercise from our vantage point but got a few nice pictures.

We finally got to the top of Devil's kitchen and it lead us out onto a plateau, the next stage was a long steep scree slope to the next "top" we could see, after that there was another stage of more solid rock and a lesser incline. Anyway, as already stated we made it, the view was ace, you can see the entire width of Anglesey from there! saw the Snowdon train making its way up and felt rather jealous

The first 5-10 mins of the descent seemed like heaven, until we found our way down that I had suggested would be good, it was down over a rocky crag, quite a few sections dropping and scrambling precariously, then a nice gentle grass slope (ahhh bliss!) but then it just started getting steeper and steeper, the last section (we could have gone around but it was a long way and we were absolutey knackered, we ran out of drink just after the devils kitchen ) the last section felt like near vertical, it was a grassy slope which turned into small bushes, the only way to traverse it without certain death was to slide down, grabbing onto bushes to control your fall! madness, but exhaustion lack of alternatives made it seem like a reasonable idea.

We barely took any pictures after the summit, just the obligatory views and such. We were pretty much silent in the car most of the way home, completely drained but still, we made it! we conquered the mountain

Sorry for the long self indulgent post but thought some of you might find the story entertaining, the pictures, distilled down to 12 decent ones from 297 I took through the day are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettne...7619705390883/

Thanks for listening and hope you enjoyed
I'm selling my old CBR125 later this month so should be getting myself a DSLR then so hopefully the pictures should improve then too. wanted one for ages, but I want a lot of things hehe.

Wow thats amazing.
Great photos, looks like a good photographer and a good camera

We did that walk with school, unfortunately my mate had a fall before Devils Kitchen and ended up at Bangor hospital via being winched into a rescue helicopter. Only a badly sprained ankle and broken wrist though, so could have been worse.

I love the Glyders! Good work, lovely snaps!

[Brettus]

Originally Posted by MR UKI (1)

We did that walk with school, unfortunately my mate had a fall before Devils Kitchen and ended up at Bangor hospital via being winched into a rescue helicopter. Only a badly sprained ankle and broken wrist though, so could have been worse.

Yeah there seems no end of ways to injure yourself on there, thing is, being so remote, any injury can require an airlift out if you can't get yourself off the mountain, in retrospect it was idiotic descending the grassy bushy patch the way we did but hey ho, it worked out alright.

Really pleased with the pictures (thanks for the compliments Sally) the ride of the valkyries one looks ace as my wallpaper, I like how you can even see the pilot heh.
The panorama looks good but takes no effort, its such a stunning place, every time I turned around it just looked like a picture from a magazine. Very cool trip anyhow and I've stopped aching now, Sunday was a write off, I'd have had to call in sick if I'd have done the trip on Sunday heh.

[Quiff Wichard]

superb mate- good write up..
well done you..

Great write up, good pics. How long did it take you?

Stu

EDIT: Reason I ask is because I need something to do for two weeks in the summer so would like a lowdown on it Love wales anyway, would stop over at the place we stayed on NW2 rideout cos the place is absolutely fabulous.

[Richie]

superb photos... loving the shimering stones...

oh and the helicopter ones...

[Spiderman]

Theres a UFO in the background of one of the pics...can anyone else see it?

[Brettus]

Originally Posted by plowsie

How long did it take you?
I need something to do for two weeks in the summer

I don't think it would take you THAT long hehe, in total we were out of the car for 7.5 hours, but I'm very unfit, and we didn't really head for the summit till late on when it looked attainable. plus we spent at least 1.5 hours taking pictures. I can definitely recommend it as a good day out. but there are loads of mountains just like this in the area, I just liked this one since school and I like the two tarns I believe they are called in the Cwm's

One of our welsh reps came by today and I was telling him about it and my broken welsh was completely shown up LOL.

Thanks guys, glad people like the writeup, I'm never sure if people actually read and I completely understand if not, its a lot of text but its just something I have to do it seems. (even if it is a little self indulgent)

Richie: I'm glad someone likes the shimmering stones, I take a few odd ones like that whenever I go out on a photo trip but they often don't make the cut or no-one ever mentions them so the more popular ones get shown more.