08th September 2015
Tryfan
I was wide awake at 05:15, I tried to go back to sleep, but in the end I got up at 05:45, and made a coffee and went outside for some fresh air, I noticed a crescent moon in the early morning light, so I went in and got my camera gear, and took some photos.
My cropped photo of the moon taken at 06:36am.
As the sun started rise, the sky was totally clear, a lovely blue with not a cloud in the sky. I made the decision that today would be the perfect day for me to climb the North Ridge of Tryfan, my first time in around 6 or 7 years (omg! is it really that long since I have been up this wonderful ridge?) I am under orders from Susie, not to tell her which day I am going to climb Tryfan, as she worries so much, bless her.
I made myself some toast and another drink, and then sorted out as much of my gear as I could without waking Andy. Once Andy was up, I told him of my plans and then finished getting ready; James was still in bed when I left at around 09:00.
I pulled over into a lay-by to take some photos of the Nant Ffrancon valley at around 09:45.
A panoramic photo of the Nant Ffrancon Valley, taken on my Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone. I love this mode on this phone.
I got to the Ogwen Valley at around 09:55, once I had parked up in the lay-by at the base of Tryfan's North ridge; I crossed the road to take some photos of Llyn Ogwen.
Llyn Ogwen looking towards Idwal Cottage Youth Hostel
After getting my boots on, and sorting out what gear I was taking with me, I locked up my car. At this point a group of youngsters with a couple of leaders went past me and through the gate to the start of the route. I started to climb at around 10:15 (back in the day, Colin and I have reached the summit in just over one and a quarter hours).
Last time I went climbing round here, I had my Fuji finepix bridge camera, which I thought at the time was brilliant, but now I have a DSLR camera, albeit the basic model, so I was keen to take as many photos as I could as I climbed.
As normal the start of the climb is not very exciting and is always the same route, it is not until you reach the Milestone Buttress, that the real climbing starts and the route can vary each time you climb. You start to gain height quite quickly on the north ridge.
The group of youngsters in front of me.
Gaining height quickly, looking towards Idwal Cottage.
I kept stopping to take photos; well that was my excuse for taking a breather! I knew I wasn't fit, but I was struggling at times on this climb.
At one point I heard the roar, as I saw a jet plane disappear through the Ogwen Valley into Nant Ffrancon Valley, I wouldn't say it was flying low, but I was way above it! I got to my favourite part of the north ridge, the part where I am actually having to think about where I have to put my hands and feet, and make sure before I make the move that I am using the correct points of contact. This is where I speed up in my rate of height gain. I noticed that there was a couple below me, making their way up, they also were stopping and taking photos of each other at different points on the climb. As I was looking back the way I had come, the man noticed me and acknowledged me with a nod of the head, which I returned.
I eventually reached The Cannon at around 12:30 (a piece of rock which sticks out from the side of Tryfan, that looks like, you guessed it, a cannon. This can be seen from the car park near Idwal cottage). I was waiting for the couple to catch me up, so I could ask one of them to take my photo on the cannon. I could just see them a little way off doing their own photo shoot. I waited and waited, I then realised they had totally bypassed the cannon.
The Cannon.
I think I should have taken the photo from the other side.
I started to climb again, and this is where I made up for lost time, as I seemed to shoot up the next stage of the climb to the 1st of the gullies. It was when I was climbing this stage that I caught up and passed some of the group of youngsters. I caught up with the remainder of the group at the gully; one of the leaders was instructing the group on how to cross the gully safely. I waited for them all to clear the gully (not catching a breather, honestly), before I went across, and passed them all.
The translation of the name Tryfan is three peaks/tops Try = three, Fan = peaks/tops. So now I came to the 1st of the three peaks, the North peak, where you drop down to another gully before making the climb up to the summit proper. I reached the summit and the two monoliths known as Adam & Eve at around about 13:55 (so it had taken me 3 hours and 40 minutes to climb the north ridge of Tryfan, but I wasn't in any rush, so this didn't bother me). There were not too many people on top, that was until the group of youngsters arrived!
A selfie of me next to Adam & Eve, on the summit of Tryfan.
I had my hazlet rolls, a bag of crisps and an apple for my lunch, while taking in the views, it was such a glorious day, still very few clouds in the sky, and you could see for miles in all directions. I happily spent around 35 minutes on the summit, just taking in the views and of course taking photos.
I overheard the conversation between one of the youths and one of the leaders, regarding Adam & Eve. The lad asked "is it possible to jump from Adam to Eve, as the gap does not look that big" to which the leader replied "no it would be too dangerous, as there is a very steep drop on the other side of the two monoliths, and it would only take a gust of wind to blow someone over the edge" I thought, fair comment, as they were a young group, and with all the fooling around youths can get up to, daring each other etc, it wouldn't be a good idea. I then thought, all you would want now, is someone who has just reached the summit, and knows the tale of leaping from one to the other to gain the freedom of Tryfan, and got straight over to the monoliths and do the leap in front of all these youths, I wonder how the conversation would have gone between the leader and the youth then? I must admit I was tempted prior to the conversation to do the leap myself, which I have done on so many other occasions, but I had already decided not to this time.
I started to make my way off Tryfan at around 14:30, I had decided to miss out going over the South Peak, just like ascending the north ridge, descending Tryfan via the south route, there are so many different ways of going down, you can make it as hard or as easy as you want. I wasn't looking for anything too technical, so I just found the easiest route that was in front of me.
When I first arrived on the summit, there was a German family taking in the views, they left the summit before I did, but I caught them up on the way down, as I carried on down, scrambling down where I needed to, I could hear them, I was sure they were trying to follow me down, but I was soon out of sight for them to see which route I had taken.
Llyn Bochlwyd (Australia lake)
I continued down, when I got to Llyn Bochlwyd, there was a couple sat at the water's edge, and it looked like they had removed their boots and socks and were dipping their feet into the very inviting water, I even thought of doing the same, to cool my feet down, but decided against it. I took a couple of photos here then headed off along the track towards where Nant Bochlwyd flows from Llyn Bochlwyd over the edge to form a couple of waterfalls as it makes its way down the mountain side.
Nant Bochlwyd waterfall.
The remainder of the walk towards Idwal cottage was quite uneventful. Just before I got to the Afon Idwal waterfall, I noticed I had a signal on my mobile, so I gave Susie a quick phone call, at which point I told her she need not worry anymore as I had just completed my Tryfan climb without incident. She said she had a feeling that I was doing it today.
Andy & James had planned to do other things while I climbed Tryfan, and that was to go to Llyn Idwal to take some photos, and to go to Beddgelert, I wasn't sure which way round they planned to do this.
After I came off the phone to Susie, I thought I would try to call Andy, but no answer, mobile signal in this area is bad. So I headed towards the bridge over the waterfall, I thought the view down the Nant Ffrancon valley looked nice, so I went to take a photo, just as I pressed the shutter button, who should walk into frame? Andy & James. It was now 16:50. I said to Andy that if they wanted to stick around and take some photos, that was OK with me, but I didn't fancy the walk to Llyn Idwal, they seemed happy with this, and started to take some photos around the area of the waterfall. Andy then said about giving me a lift to fetch my car from the lay-by at the base of Tryfan, while James carried on taking photos. I met back up with Andy in the car park by the Ogwen valley visitor centre. Yet again he had attracted some wildlife, in the shape of yet another robin (or was it the same one from Penrhyn Castle yesterday?).
Andy's stalker
Andy and I just chatted about our day, while we waited for James to return. The sky looked quite moody over Y Garn, so Andy took my camera and took some photos.
The moody sky over Y Garn, taken by Andy.
After a while, we started to wonder what had happened to James, so we went to look for him. We went back to the bridge over Afon Idwal falls, where we had last seen him, but he was nowhere to be seen! Andy started to follow the track towards Tryfan, while I went off track to see if James had gone that way, still no sign of him. Then Andy called over and said he had found him, just round the corner where he was taking photos of some plants. While he was finishing off I took one last panoramic photo.
We went back to the cars, and then headed back to the cottage via Tesco. Once back at the cottage I got a quick shower and then we headed in the village to the Tafarn Ty Gwyn pub, for our evening meal. Andy and I have used this pub on numerous occasions we have been to the cottage, and have always had a friendly welcome, and the food has always been good value for money. The staff are still friendly and the food is still good value for money, but the pub it's self looks tired and in need of redecoration. After our meal and a drink we went back to the cottage. As it has been such a long and exhausting day for me, I went off to bed around 10:45.
What a great day this was. I just love climbing Tryfan, and I hope to climb Tryfan again very soon.
