Taffey New Year

The post Christmas gluttony ended with a phone call from Stuart, Wales had ice and snow, a rare condition that couldn't be passed up. After cashing in my last brownie points we were heading north, snow covered the land all the way to the Ynys ettws hut in the Llanberis valley. Inside was warm and the other occupants were a sociable lot, unfortunately they informed us the water was frozen so a hot shower was out of the question. Water had to be sourced from the near by stream which seemed to double as the resident sheep's toilet. After exchanging pleasantries Stuarts culinary skills were brought into play and I was quickly banished from the kitchen to await the great feast of rice and pheasant, washed down with a rather nice red of unknown origin. We then settled down by the fire to plan the following days activities ably assisted by a bottle of Drambuie, after sorting our kit we turned in around midnight.

Half way through my first cup of coffee at 5.30 am I began to feel rather queer, and proceeded to throw up last nights meal into the sink, much to Stuarts amusement, after another cup stayed down, we headed off with an extra passenger whom we dropped off en route, as he headed off to Snowdon to ski down the railway line we arrive at the Ogwen cottage car park as it starts to get light. Snow and ice cover all but the steepest of rock our chosen route the ramp in the devils kitchen area is supposed to be one of the best grade 3 ice climbs in north Wales.

Stuart leads the first pitch over a mixture of frozen turf and short bands of steep ice for about 45 m to a small ice cave, at the belay we exchange gear and I manage to climb over Stuart without stabbing him with my crampons and begin thrashing my up to a fat icicle that offers an ideal sling thread a few meters higher and in goes my first ice screw, my hangover a distant memory, as I look for my next axe placement with a reassuring thud it bites deep into the ice, kicking new toe holds and standing up, the angle eases almost too soon, I'm moving over the last bit of frozen grass to the belay ledge where a large boulder offers the perfect anchor. Stuart quickly joins me and we solo out over easy ground finishing an outstanding climb. On the descent we stop to chat with several climbers and we realize that all the good climbs have climbers on them and the queues were growing by the minute, so with some regret we call it a day and head off to Llanberis for well earned pints of tea and probably the worlds largest chip butties at Pete's eats, shortly after Stuart is buying a rather fetching bra top and matching pants after spending far too much time in the ladies section of Joe Brown's shop.

Day two has us up around 6 and heading for Sergants gulley, in reasonably calm weather unfortunately the expected bad weather turned up early and within two hours the wind was lashing us with snow and ice, during a brief lull I stopped to put on an extra jumper but as soon as I took my jacket off a gust of wind covered me in snow which then melted leaving me shivering in the cold. Shortly after, we met another climber descending who informed us that things were worse on the ridge so with no sign of the weather improving we returned to the hut for hot drinks and dry clothes once again Wales sends us home early but there will be a next time.

Dave