Rich S and Kev set off from the car park for the north ridge of Tryfan; an easy, if a little exposed, grade 1 scramble. Route finding at first was easy as there is a good path, but the terrain soon turns vertical and easy walking turns into a lot of scrambling. The height gain is incredible, no gentle walk in on this route!
When we reached the snow, all traces of a path quickly disappeared so a direct approach to the ridge was taken. As we got within a couple of hundred metres of the summit we moved around to the left of the ridge and followed a gully to the summit as the rocks we were scrambling on had zero grip due to the levels of ice cover.
Just before the route had turned vertical we had past a young lad having a breather on the path. During the ascent he had stayed around 10 metres behind us, never letting us get out of sight but just far enough away so no conversation could take place. When we reached the summit we finally concertinaed and we asked if he could take our photo. As we chatted he admitted to us that this was his first winter climb and only his fourth ever mountain. He had been into a shop in Betws-y-coed, bought his ice axe and crampons, and decided to go for it. However, when he reached the first vertical step on the ridge scramble he was pleased someone had turned up so he could follow as it looked a little daunting! His initially plan was to descend the south ridge and head back to his car but when he found out our plan to go on to Glyder Fach and Fawr he asked if he could follow some more!
I have to say it was one of the noisiest walks I have been on and I think this was due to the good weather. We had two Hawk trainers doing laps through the valley at around 500m and a rescue helicopter came and dropped a signal flare on a ridge just above us for a little practice.
We decided to avoid the ridge scramble up to Glyder Fach and follow the snow line as the face had seen no sun and was very icy. The route we took was up a scree slope but was easy due to the snow cover.
Once on top we had a relatively easy walk to Glyder Fawr and with all three summits bagged it was time to descend via Devil’s Kitchen. The route down followed a steep snow covered slope with no rocks protruding, which meant only one thing to me… time for some ice axe arrests!! Not only do you get to practice an essential winter mountain skill, you also get down the hill in rapid time. When I suggested we go back up to have another go all I got were funny looks and mumbled obscenities. Looks like it’s just me that’s a big kid then!!
Once down to the tarn we had the opportunity to check out some long classic climbs at Idwal. A very gentle slope of a slab with a 200m VDiff climb called ‘Hope’. Once the weather improves we will be back to give that one a go!
The final leg of the route is back along the road to the car park where we had the pleasure of the Hawks racing down the valley again.
An excellent day out.
Rich S
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