A Big Day on Glyders Fach- East Gully Arete

(May 2014)

The sky was grey and air cool as me and Lee headed from the A5 at the bottom of the Ogwen Valley and towards the side the Godzilla like Tryfan and the cwm containing Llyn Bochlwyd. The path was fairly steep and I soon had to take off my jumper and tuck it away in my pack. I was en route towards my first multi-pitch mountain day and hopefully going to conquer a massive 150 metre route up the East Gully Arête, a place few have the chance or the urge to visit.

Llyn Bochlwyd and Tryfan behind

The path levelled out to follow the shores of the lake bustling with people heading towards the jagged Bristly Ridge high to our left. Lee pulled out the guide book and between us we began interpreting the direction in which we must go to find the base of the route. Heading from the path we soon had to start slogging through ankle deep mud and sheep droppings surrounding the lake shore and our trail. 

Tryfan with the grey sky above

 

The line we planned to take was a arête of jagged uneven rock raised above a steep sided and boulder littered gully to it's right. Lee took the lead up the first steep and twisting pitch, directly up the north face of the Glyders Fach. I followed and took over the lead once he was safely secured, scrambling up ladden with my rucksack. 

High on the Glyders Fach

The sun creeped higher into the sky evaporating the early morning cloud, leaving a bright clear sky. The rays beating down on us soon began to cook my neck and face that I had naively left unprotected. I came to the hardest section of my leads so far, a sloping narrow pinnacle of rock that I protection by quickly stuffing a large cam into a crack above me. I composed myself on this exposed and vulnerable position with a huge drop eitherside and moved up. 

The light fading and time to make an escape

 

(Lee abseiling down a gully to escape the mountain)

The light had began to relent and indicate that we must give up our persuit for the summit and descend down the gully to our right. Packing up the ropes we began the scramble off the side of the arête and into the gully, soon being required to set up a 25 metre abseil to reach some solid ground. 

The light slipping away out of the Ogwen Valley

The slog once on some leveller if boulder littered ground seemed to take for ever as we stumbled our way down and past the shore of the lake again. We were both knackered, hungry and dying for a beer and the sight of a horned local mountain goat made me think a barbecue would be a great idea for dinner. 

Last light from the hut

 

I just collapsed onto the empty carpark, savouring the smooth warm tarmac under my back after 12 hours of moving. The bottle of ice cold cider cooled my parched, dry throat and pizza soothed my aching stomach on our return to the hut. The tales of days adventures filled the room for the rest of the night as we discussed our successes and funny moments out on the hill.