Snowdonia part II

Here's some highlights from the second day at Snowdonia. I went out with 4 fellow hill walkers to summit Glyder Fach (3,261 ft) and Glyder Fawr (3,277 ft). We passed Llyn Bochlwyd (a pond... nothing spectacular but it's fun to use the Welsh words) over to the ridges leading to the summit. This hike involved less scrambling, but more scree. Still steep though! We topped "Big Mound" and "Small Mound" in a considerably dryer state than Tryfan's previous summit. Only clouds this time. To get back down we carefully descended into Devil's Kitchen which was an impressive waterfall/sheep/jagged rock/cliff covered formation.

Saddle area with sheep retaining wall.

The Cantilever Rock. I'm at the end looking over the edge.

The rocks in the area reminded me of jagged ice the comes out of wet soil

Devil's Kitchen

Quote from MLK... distraction

"'Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.' -- Martin Luther King, Jr."

What do you think?

Snowdonia

This past weekend I took another trip with the CU Hill Walking Society, this time to Snowdonia National Park in Northern Wales. We left Cambridge (all 40 of us) Friday evening and arrived at Caseg Ffraith around 11:00  or so. Caseg Ffraith is a 'hut' that has everything a spoiled hiker could want: stoves, ovens, showers, flushing toilets, mats for sleeping, a snug, a coal fire, and heat! Plus you can walk out the door and hike, no driving necessarily needed.

That's exactly what I did the next morning. After picking one of many hikes to go on, I went with about 10 others to Tryfan. Tryfan is 3,010 feet tall (it'd be 2,000 feet underneath Fort Collins... but still) and the name means three peaks in Welsh. It was actually one of the more thrilling hikes I've been on. Thrilling in the terms of..."Shit, if I slip I'm probably going to get really hurt... or die."

Tryfan as seen from the hut

Not really the top

 The climb involved a lot of scrambling, basically hiking on all fours. It was raining for most of the hike and I learned that my boots aren't completely waterproof. Neither is my backpack. Oh well. The hail hurt a little too. But it was great exercise, even if I was cursing the Welsh weather the whole day.

The Cannon rock formation

A rainbow in the valley

Sunshine? Going back home.

The three peaks of Tryfan

After hiking, we got back to the hut soaking wet. After everyone had hung out their stinky damp clothes, the windows actually began fogging up because it was so humid! We cooked dinner in small groups and enjoyed a little Halloween revelry and sing alongs with a guitar and mouth piano. 

I'll get to Sunday's hike in the next post!