JamesSpratt.org

Why I Still Persist In Revisiting Wales

Posted on the June 26th, 2006 under Le Weekend, Sports/Games by jamesspratt

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On Friday evening we (me and a friend of a friend named Liz) drove down to a beautifully positioned little campsite called Gwynant near Llanberis beyond Betws-y-Coed in Snowdonia, North Wales on Friday night. Unfortunately Julia had to miss out due to her chipped foot. It took about 6.5 hours to get there and we arrived just in time for sun down and midgies up. Totally covered with them whilst putting up the tent, breathed in a few too. Bloody bastards.

Asleep at about 0030 with the alarm set for 0310hrs, got on the road to our start point at Pen-y-Pass for just after 0330 and then started ascending at 0410hrs.

We were trying for the Welsh 3000s again. Last year’s attempt fell to pieces despite covering much more ground than was necessary having been out on the hills last year for 24hrs. We should be able to do this in 18hrs supposedly but yet again it wasn’t happening. Had ‘bagged’ 7 peaks, the rain was coming down, people were slipping on the rocks and visibility was getting bad. One of our group was a qualified Mountain Leader who quite rightly pointed out that it really wasn’t sensible to carry on. We’d all been thinking this but noone really ever wants to be the first to say it.

So we were only out for about 12hrs and I now feel a tad guilty and need to go back yet again to get this one done. Despite the weather, it was great to be there, such a beautiful part of the world.

 

Big up innit, to Nick and Dafydd who chose to run most of the course bagging all 15 peaks above 3000′ in about 12hrs.